The dumplings arrive by rope.

Genbikei is a gorge on the Iwai River in southern Iwate, where the water has drilled round hollows into pale rock and left green pools between them. Most people come to look at it. Part of what they look at is lunch, crossing the air above the river.

There is a teahouse on the far bank and a shelter on the near one, with a basket hanging from a wire strung between them. You put your money in the basket and strike a wooden board with a mallet. The basket climbs away and disappears into the shop. Minutes later it comes back carrying three skewers and a cup of tea. The tea has not spilled.

Five dumplings to a skewer, which is not arbitrary: this district was once a village called Itsukushi, written with the character for five. The count outlived the name.

The shop is called Kakkoya, the cuckoo house, after a founder who could imitate the bird well enough that people came partly to hear him. The cuckoo is a summer visitor here. By the time the maples turn, at the end of October, it has gone south.

So autumn here is white rock, green water, red leaves, and a basket moving slowly across all three. You wait for it. The waiting is most of the visit.