ms tabula rasa

true to its name, hitsujiyama has sheep!! everything that happened in chapter 1 happened less than 50 meters away from a paddock full of sheep.

speaking of which, here's the bench.

I also went to hashidate limestone cave, which is a short train ride south of chichibu station.

I learned looking it up after that that fork in the road also shows up in non non biyori. as does this bucket, which I fortuitously took a picture of:

impressive that this same blue plastic bucket has been sitting here for over 15 years.

photos aren't allowed inside the cave itself. I'm not claustrophobic, as I've learned, but Jinglan's reaction is entirely understandable. it's very wet. you will get dripped on. the floors are uneven and slippery, and the passageways frequently require you to stoop or even crawl. when you finally get to the end you're met with a series of ladders, and one extremely steep "staircase" carved into the limestone, each of which leads to a smaller, less inviting hole to clamber through than the last. great fun.

I walked by mahollo bar, but I don't care for beer, so I didn't go in. I did enjoy hey's sketch on the sign asking that fans be mindful of taking photographs when other patrons are inside, though.

the sake store is also right down the street. I was hoping to maybe buy a bottle of 巨峰 (the rosé botan and ibuki drank), but unsurprisingly it's sold out. most likely until next year, according to the lady at the store.

if I were really dedicated I would have stayed overnight in the hostel and then taken the bus another two hours to mitsumine shrine in the morning, but I'll save that for if I ever come back here when the shibazakura are in bloom.

if you're interested in seeing that, though, there's a very thorough post about it here (I also borrowed most of the screenshots here from his blog).

bonus: if you walk another two kilometers or so south from the cave, you can see the urayamaguchi dam:

it's the tallest structure in the entire valley by a wide margin. higurashi type of situation.

on your way out of chichibu, you can buy a selection of drinks featured in the story at the station shop:

I don't drink much or often so it's hard to justify buying alcohol when it's not a gift, but...