Japan 3.13: Tomonoura and Sensui Island, the end of the third Japan trip

The night before our final day, we decided to take a short walk to the other side of the train station, to see the Fukuyama Castle.  We were surprised to find that you could walk right up to the castle, and we were not the only ones with the idea.  There were dozens and dozens of people hanging around the castle.  Many were doing a late night picnic.  It was beautiful and a great way to spend the night.



The next day, we left our bags with the reception desk and took a bus ride to Tomonoura.  Tomonoura is a small port town south of Fukuyama.  It was a village that helped inspire the children's movie Ponyo as well as being the shooting location of a few scenes in Wolverine.  In any case, I wanted to visit the local island, Sensui.  Outside of one hotel, the island is not inhabited, and is supposed to be very serene.

We took a five minute ferry ride over to the island.



We took the outer trail, and pretty much had the route all to ourselves.  Miles enjoyed climbing the rocks and hanging out on the beach.



Once we reached the end of the walkway, we took two of the more inland routes, but they didn't have much of a view. 

Upon arriving back in Tomonoura, we wandered through the streets, enjoying our last walk in a Japanese village.



We decided to go to a local shrine, Ioji, which was said to have a short path into the mountains with a great view.  It did indeed.



Back in town, we looked around some more and then headed to a ramen restaurant near the bus stop.



Like many of the restaurants in these small towns, its hours were not listed on Google and they did not have a website.  The restaurant was closed.  We took the bus back to Fukuyama and ate waffles at the train station.

We grabbed our bags and took the train to Shin-Osaka station, and then took a bus shuttle to the ITM airport.  From the airport we walked just a few minutes to our hotel.  Our flight would leave at 8 AM the next morning.

 For dinner, I used google to locate a Chinese restaurant nearby.  At the restaurant, we sat on the floor on some pillows.  Unlike most restaurants, this one had no pictures, and a menu only in Japanese.  We used the google translate app to find something we could eat.  After our order came, I heard someone else in the restaurant ordering yakisoba, which I very much had wanted to eat again before leaving Japan.  I added it to our order.  It was fantastic.

Japan 3.12: Knife making, and Easter on Bunny/Poison Gas Island

My cold was still in full swing, so I needed to take emergency procedures to get through the following day.  I took Afrin to clear my sinuses.

I had booked the day with a swordsmith in Gifu, to have Miles and I make our own "samurai" knives.  We took the 7:30 train to Gifu-Hashima Station and were then picked up by the swordsmith and his wife.  We were informed that the other group that was supposed to be making knives with us had canceled, so we had a private lesson.

We were taught how to use bellows to heat the furnace:



We were given a precut piece of metal to begin.



We had to heat up our knife and then hammer into it while it was still red and hot.  Then, once it cooled off too much to keep hammering, we would put it back in until it was red again.  This took quite a while.  Miles kept at it, as he needed quite a while.  The swordsmith told me near the end that Miles did a great job and that most kids needed a lot more help than he did.





We sanded down the rough edges of the handle, had our blades sharpened by one of the assistants, and then we sharpened them further.



We also got to imprint letters into our blade before the final hardening took place.  It ended up taking about 6 or so hours, including a lunch break.



We returned to Kyoto, picked up our bags, and left for Fukuyama.

This morning, Easter, we slept in a bit.  Then, we left for Okunoshima, also known as "Bunny Island."  The island is overrun with rabbits.  They do not know exactly how the rabbits came to me, but they now take care of the rabbits and many people come to visit.  Rabbit tiles on the ground led us from the train station to the port.





The island's history is a bit dark, as it was used to manufacture poison gas to be used in World War II, primarily against the Chinese.  It was even removed from maps during this time period.  SO, we saw some of these facilities as we walked around the outer loop of the island.

The island had some beautiful parts as well, and you could see many islands across the water, including the Shimanami Kaido islands that I biked through on my first trip.

I wasn't feeling well for most of the day, but Miles greatly enjoyed seeing all of the rabbits.  One other thing of note to me was observed during lunch in the island's only restaurant.  Stephanie and I had rice and curry.  I used chopsticks.  I looked it up, and apparently curry is very popular in Japan and is eaten with a spoon.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Japan.  We leave the following morning.

Japan 3.11: A wasted day in Kyoto

We made our way from Miyajima to Kyoto, looking to hit some of the spots I missed and revisit ones that I'd loved before.  The day did not go as planned.

We dropped off our bags at our hotel across from the Kyoto train station.  Then, we headed for Nonenzaka, a street that was supposed to be filled with older houses and shops.  On our way, we looked over a tiny bridge to see tons of cherry blossoms going downstream.  When we turned to continue walking, Miles somehow banged his knee, opening up an old scab.  While Miles was holding a tissue on it, a random woman came up to us offering two bandaids, and then continued on her way, just as fast as she came.  Was super cool and unexpected.

When we arrived at the street, it was an absolute mob scene of tourists.  As soon as I saw what was happening, I took this picture and turned to go in the opposite direction.



One other bit that I noticed was that the amount of people who had rented kimino outfits, that we ended up seeing throughout the day, were in the hundreds.  It felt more like a dragoncon gone wrong than exploring Japan.  It was embarrassing.  They looked ridiculous and hobbled along, barely able to move their legs, all while wearing sandals.  Absolutely ridiculous.

We headed northwest, towards two art shops that had old drawings.  We browsed briefly and continued heading north towards the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts.  We walked through the gift shop and through the museum, which was just as beautiful as I remembered, except this time, there were craftsmen demonstrating a few crafts.  We all enjoyed that.

Just a few minutes north of that was the Tozando Shop, which we peaked into just to see their antique swords.  Then, we headed east toward the Philosopher's Path.  I walked on this path back in July, enjoying the solitude and peacefulness.  I had read that it was even more beautiful in cherry blossom season.  On our way, we ran into a few people in suits.



Other than the suit convention, the streets had nearly no tourists.  Then, we arrived at the Path.



The street was overrun by tourists with selfie sticks.  The whole scene was ludicrous and ugly, despite the blossoms.  In addition, dozens of shops and kiosks had opened along the street just to add to the whole vibe of suckiness.  We barely made it halfway before I just turned and walked away out of disgust.

We had been walking all day and had not accomplished much of anything.  I had wanted to reach the silver temple, at the end of the philospher's path, but we would have ended up being five to ten minutes too late.  Our timing was just off.  I had also originally planned to tackle the mountain path that I had lost my phone on during my first Kyoto visit, but I was just too tired, uncomfortable with my cold, and it was getting late.

One of the biggest negatives of Kyoto is its poor transportation system compared to other Japanese cities.  We ended up packed into a bus being pushed into poles and other people for nearly 40 minutes in order to get to our hotel.  We ended the day there.

I absolutely loved my visit in Kyoto the first time around.  This time was the opposite.  The most memorable moments were those that I had exploring the city without loads of tourists.  Maybe this just wasn't the time of year, but last time it was in the summer, which I would imagine is fairly high tourist season too...