About Furudono

I've taken the time to study up on my town a little further (via it's part-Japanese, part-unreadable-by-my-English-OS website). It seems the town symbol is a little waterfall (kamakura-taki), and it is beautiful in the Autumn with a full range of color-changing leaves (kouyou). The area seems big on horseback riding in the Mikabu Highlands, and the local ancient sport is yabusame, which means archery on horseback. Unfortunately for me, it seems a local featured dish is pickled persimmon... I am not a fan of Japanese pickles, but I'll try the best I can to develop a taste for them because they are a big part of Japanese cuisine. There's a little history museum, as well, but I doubt that will take more than an afternoon to explore...
I'll have to take up hiking, eating bento box lunches under changing leaves, archery, horseback riding, archery on horseback... haha.
As long as I get to do my karaoke once a week, I think it'll all work out!

On the town website there are 10 restaurants listed: Snack Riverside, Yakitori Hyoutan, Pub Focus, Izakaya Horoyoi Fuyu (Izakaya Tipsy Winter, as in slightly drunk-tipsy) Ongaku (music - maybe this means I can do karaoke here!!!), Wafuu Restaurant (Wafuu=Japanese-style) Ongaku(unreadable kanji), Pub Academie, Okonomiyaki Konomi, Sushi(unreadable kanji-the size on the flash site is too small... I must be aging!), (Unreadable), and Yabusameno(archery on horseback)(unreadable) ofukuro(home-cooking)no(eki?=station?) . It seems there are also 11 ramen stands listed.
There appear to be a few onsen (hot spring) places, but I can't be sure.
The only thing listed under shopping is Ofukuro no (eki?), which is either the train station or a place to buy local souvenirs.
There is a place called "Cosmos Highway" that is a complete mystery to me.
There are a lot of places to go look at flowers ("natural beauty" seems to be the main feature of the area), many of which I've already mentioned.
There are many local festival events that seem to draw Japanese tourists, if not foreign tourists, and of course they have summer fireworks (hanabi).
More to come?