Amami Superman Photography

I had the afternoon off last Friday so I decided to go on a hike. I headed to a place in Tatsugo in the north of Amami to the top of a mountain range. There they have a park with plenty of paths that wind around it made for bird watching. The name of the pass this park is found on is Nagakumo and I'm not sure about the name of the park except most people call it "shizen no mori" which means "Nature's Forest", I think...

After checking out the gift shop, we decided it was time to head out again. But before we did, we stopped by the petting zoo to check out some of the animals they had roaming freely. They had a couple of vending machines that dispensed treats you could give to the animals. Jade bought hers and headed straight for the calf.



She stuck the treat in her pocket, but that didn't stop the calf from looking for it. It could smell it on her.













That was our short visit to Takachiho Farms on the Ebino Plateau. Although we didn't get to ride the ponies or do some of the other fun stuff they had, it was a fun experience none the less. It will be fun to come back here when the weather isn't so crummy.

We still had a big portion of the day ahead of us so we made our way to the car and headed to downtown Kagoshima to city aquarium.

After we finished going around and checking out the cows and horses we decided it was time to grab some grub. We were close to the barbecue restaurant they had and the smell of grilling beef was calling to our hunger so we made our way there.

They didn't have a huge menu to choose from but they had a few sets to choose from. Once we made our order we received a card with a number on it. When our order was finished, they called our number and we picked it up at the window.



It was a simple meal, but I have to say, barbecued beef makes the cold rainy days go away. I had a ravenous hunger and it was all I could do to keep myself from wolfing down the cubed steak. A regular Japanese barbecue usually uses thinly sliced beef where this was cubed and it's been a while since I've had thick barbecued steak like this.







They also had other things on the menu like different kinds of pizza and icecream. The pizza cheese and icecream are all made from the milk they produce there at the farm. They also had a fondue hot dog. It had hot melted cheese on a hot dog with some tomatoes, a bit of cabbage and some mustard. After enjoying some juicy steak, this hot dog just didn't quite make the cut.

Jade wanted to use the binocular device they had nearby while we finished our lunch so we let her go while we kept an eye on her. I finished my lunch and I decided to try and sneak up on her.








After we finished our lunch we visited the gift shop and then we went to the petting zoo they had. they had some sheep, cows, rabbits and some other animals roaming around in a small enclosure they had near the parking lot. I'll save those photos for another post.

One of the things we did for our trip to Kyushu was take Jade to the Takachiho Farms. Takachiho Farm is a dairy farm where they raise dairy cows for milking and cattle for beef. They also have pigs I believe and make their own pork products such as sausage.

We arrived at the farm a little after 11:00am on Sunday. We hurried to get in line for a cow milking event they had that started at 11:3oam. We were the first ones there so Jade got to be the first one to milk the cow.

As the children were milking this cow, one of the men talked about the importance of milk. As he spoke, he reminded me of this quote, "I guess cows aren't into the four food groups, especially when they are two of them." ~Anthony Clark

After that we headed to the horse stables. They usually have times set aside for pony rides but the weather was bad and the corrals were too muddy so they canceled the rides for that day.


Now, I've never seen a halfling pony and I didn't imagine them to be quite this big. They are smaller than regular sized horses, but bigger than I expected. They are also quite shaggy beasts. I could picture this halfling being ridden by Samwise Gamgee from one of Tolkien's books. I remember a pony my grandmother had with her other horses. We called him "Tidbit". He was a shorty too.



They had ropes around these guys so we couldn't get close enough to take regular photos. But I did want something to remember this by so I had Jade just stand there and smile.

After that we made our way around to where the housed the cows. We first walked past the calves and then on the the bigger adults. Jade got a kick out of that. I expected her to be more scared of them, but she didn't seem to be that much.







It was well into the afternoon by then and we still hadn't eaten lunch so we went to the outdoor barbecue area they had to get us some grub after that. I'll post those photos in the next post.