Five for Five

With the typhoon gone over to the Fukui side of the island, Megumi and I went out to ride our bikes and do some geocaching. 

Two weeks ago you may remember I went out to do some caching across the Edogawa River in Chiba. I only found one: 1st Saizeriya. The other several I tried I couldn't get. This time, things were different and well... we found five for five today! Yes!! 

The Edogawa near my place is really high from the heavy rains up river, so it was quite dirty and fast, but we crossed over with no difficulty. First of all we went to "Where Am I?" which has an old train on display in a kids playground. My GPS was going haywire the last time, but this time... well, I sat down "on the waves", and thought a bit, trusted the coordinates, reached, and there it was. Pretty simple. 

Next we rode a little further to "Earth, Peace, Futuer" (Misspelled by owner), and saw this little bronze girl standing in a tiny park (concrete) in the corner of a big intersection. I immediately found the cache. Megumi was a bit pissed because as she was getting her gps up and running, I just walked to where I thought it would be, and there it was.

After that we rode to the "Animal in Stone" location, and I showed her the animal. Just to make sure I wasn't wrong, and this wasn't some deviant stone carving of a traditional thing (as can happen here in Japan for reasons unknown to me) that is actually something else, I asked the owner of the carving (who owns a tobacco shop on the corner), if it was really what I thought it was (maneki neko). He said yes. So I put in the coordinates for the next location (this is called a multi-cache, where you go to one place, answer a question, and based on the answer get new coordinates for the next location, which might lead you to a next, and a next, and a so on... ) and we went there (155m away). 

Actually it was right where I was searching last time and couldn't find anything. BUT this time, I recalled where "1st Saizeriya" was hidden, and since the same person hid this one, I knew exactly where to look. But instead of just grabbing it, I gave Megumi some hints and she reached out... and her eyes bulged as she pulled out her first cache! "Cam!! How did you know?!?!?!?" (think like a geocache...) So, we took photos, logged it, added a sticker, and stealthily put it back. There was a lot of people and traffic so I made a bit of a diversion for her, and she slipped it back.

Then I took her to "1st Saizeriya" because she was again a bit miffed that I just found three absolutely by myself. So I gave her the same hint that is on the log page, and reminded her that it was hidden by the same person who hid the "Animal in stone". I told her to look for a similar location. 

I also told her that in the description they say "near the parking lot". So once she saw the parking lot, and recalled what I told her, she found it right away! No old lady in the too expensive (but fresh... for Tokyo) veggie store across the street to stare at us this time. We stealthily put it back and headed on.

After that we went to "Thousand Ginkgo" ... and this shrine is AMAZING! There is a 22m ginkgo tree there that is 10m in diameter, and over 1,200 years old. Yes, that is TWELVE HUNDRED YEARS OLD! It is huge! And gorgeous. She was fiddling with her GPS, and I turned mine on, wandered behind the tree, and realized that the directions were pointing over the high stone fence to another area. So I told her it was over there. We went over to that gorgeous area, and found even more small shrines with lots of trees. 

Very nice! I recalled what the hint said, and remembered what everyone wrote ("took me five minutes to get out..." very hard to find"... etc.) and immediately knew where to look. There were two places. I took one, and Megumi the other. It was in Megumi's spot (whew!). BUT she couldn't get it out. So I told her how to get it out, and we did. This was the best cache so far. It was a "small" cache, and not micro so there was lots of stuff in it. 

There was even a "travel bug" which is a stuffed toy with a dog tag on it that has a number. You can take the bug if you want, then log it, and have to plant it in some other place. This bug has been to the following places: Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Texas, Washington, Germany, The Netherlands, India,  and Japan. We are going to take it to... Malaysia and drop it off there in a cache on our holiday (IF we can find a big enough cache to put it in). Keep an eye on the photos attached, as well as the video you may see in a bit. 

After putting this one back, and feeling very happy, we headed toward home, but there was another one on the way. So we went to "Osu Disaster Prevention Park" and ... well, I found it right away. Megumi was having trouble with her GPS, but it was pointing in the same direction as mine. We did a bit of triangulation, I felt behind a place, and then realized it wouldn't be there because it would be too easy for the ton of muggles and muggle kids playing in this park. Then I reached somewhere else... and there it was! We photographed it, logged it, and hid it again. 

And then we went for home, and on the way stopped for some dinner because Megumi was so hungry she was feeling sick. She was rather grumpy and had to force the food down, but once we got on the road again, and by the time we got back home, she was OK. 

And that was the geocaching adventure for the day!

I love you.
Cam