{"id":1143,"date":"2014-10-10T23:08:23","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T14:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2014-10-11T18:25:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T09:25:51","slug":"suspension-bridges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/10\/suspension-bridges\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspension Bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"140921_yume_tsurubashi2_500\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We decided to suspend our regular hiking plans—all of us were more than ready to rest our weary legs—and headed for Kawane Hot Springs.<\/p>\n

We got there late morning, and after soaking our feet in the outdoor hot spring for footsies only—a freebie—we decided that that was enough for a while. So we suspended our Kawane Hot Springs plan, at least until late afternoon. We got back in the car and headed\u00a0up Highway 63 . . . and then Highway 77. We didn’t have any plan.<\/p>\n

“But where<\/em> are we going?”<\/p>\n

No<\/em> one said that. How nice, how wonderfully<\/em> nice, it was!<\/p>\n

The first interesting thing we came to was a suspension bridge. It seemed every one\u00a0driving by was stopping there.\u00a0 It may have been my imagination but they seemed to have come across it suddenly—just\u00a0as we had—and been unable to pass it by.<\/p>\n

\"140921_tsurubashib_500\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Hey, let’s walk across that suspension bridge.” It was like nobody could not<\/em> say that.<\/p>\n

The sign says that no more than ten people at a time are allowed on the bridge. Your first thought may be that that has something to do with physics. Such as the bridge can only sustain so much weight. Or a large number of footsteps at various points might lead to a swaying that would\u00a0leave some folks a little queasy.<\/p>\n

But I think not. Because I’ve heard that when you walk across a suspension bridge, you often find yourself suspending disbelief. All sorts of disbelief.\u00a0 And all of a sudden you find yourself imagining that you<\/em>, if you decided to, could make something come true.<\/p>\n

So that’s the reason.\u00a0 No one really knows what might happen if more than ten people, all at once, all in the same place, came to believe that they themselves could make something come true.<\/p>\n

Not far from the suspension bridge, we discovered a trail that lead, the sign said, to a waterfall. Just a five-minute walk.<\/p>\n

\"140921_waterfall_300\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How can you not <\/em>walk five minutes to a waterfall?\u00a0Of course,\u00a0we did. The waterfall was okay. We took some pictures. But we discovered something much better— a new way of looking at the sky.<\/p>\n

\"140921_sun_treetops_375\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or maybe a new way of the looking at the sky reaching down for us.<\/p>\n

\"140921_sunlight_prism_red_dots_375\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then we were off in the car again, heading farther<\/em> away from Kawane Hot Springs. Nope, we never made it back.<\/p>\n

But we must have passed five or six suspension bridges.\u00a0 And then we realized we were awful close to Sumata Ravine and we thought what the hell.<\/p>\n

Of course, that would be the<\/em> Sumata Ravine, the one famous for its<\/em> suspension bridge. We walked from the resort to the ravine, chatting with some silly monkeys along the way . . .<\/p>\n

\"140921_monkey_225\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . and taking some pictures . . .<\/p>\n

\"140921_tamami_pic_3_375\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . .\u00a0and then got in line. The sign said that if you walked out to the middle and made a “love” wish that it would come true. I took the sign at it’s word . . . though I did interpret L-O-V-E broadly.<\/p>\n

Only ten people at a time. Only ten people at a time allowed to suspend their disbelief, to belief, for a moment at least, in love.<\/p>\n

\"140921_yume_tsuribashi_500\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But our turn came. We walked out to the middle. And it was a good moment. We just stood there, swaying a bit, bouncing a bit, not sure exactly what was under us, but seeing, in so many grinning eyes, the suspension of disbelief.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We decided to suspend our regular hiking plans—all of us were more than ready to rest our weary legs—and headed for Kawane Hot Springs. We got there late morning, and after soaking our feet in the outdoor hot spring for footsies only—a freebie—we decided that that was enough for a while. So we suspended our … Continue reading Suspension Bridges<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}