After seeing the Buddhist statues at Usuki, we visited Takachiho Gorge, which is a popular tourist stop. You can rent a row boat to see the gorge from water level. I've photographed it artfully, making the place look quite deserted, but, in reality, it's full of unpracticed boaters bumping into the walls of the gorge and into each other.
I found it difficult to row with my back to the direction of travel (which is the correct way to propel a rowboat) and ended up doing it backwards, which worked but probably looked strange.
The gorge is pretty even though only a small portion is accessible. Worth a visit, but make a reservation online ahead of time – the wait for a boat otherwise can be as long as five hours.
One highlight was seeing a small dark bird zoom past, flying just over the surface of the water and straight down the gorge – behavior that immediately identified the bird as a Dipper of some sort. I later looked it up and found that the Brown Dipper (Cinclus pallasii) is the local Dipper – a new life bird for me.
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