Japan 6.8: Walking around Tsuwano and our time in Hagi.

   I came down from the chapel in the forest and walked along the main street.  There was a building and a parking lot decorated in the design of a heron.  I only think it is this type of bird because when I looked up the town, it turns out that they have a festival based around the heron.

  I passed the Tsuwano Catholic Church, which had a uniquely ornate front.  The street was lined with a small waterway filled with massive koi fish.

  The last stop of the day was the Yomeiji Temple.  There was a surprising amount to explore.  The back had a beautiful garden and koi pond.  There were many rooms with beautiful artwork.

As usual, this town had a cute design on the ground.

In someone's car window, Studio Ghibli plushies.

  Our hotel was beautiful on both the outside and inside.  The room was standard Japanese style fare.

  We had to drive to Hagi, but we would have gotten there way before 3:00 checkin.  I came up with three places to visit along the way.  Unfortunately, outside of one phone picture and one camera picture, I accidentally deleted the rest.  The days in Hagi were mostly lazy and I somehow confused time periods of pictures that had been sorted and those that hadn't.

  We drove to Uniriji(Cat Temple).  There were decorative cats hanging from the ceiling, along the outside wall of the temple, and along the woodwork of the gong.  I picked up various charms and trinkets from the gift shop.  The worker was very friendly and gave us tea bottles for free.  I insisted that this was not necessary but eventually I had to relent to be polite.  I don't drink tea.

    We arrived at Tatamigafuchi, and we were the only cars in the parking lot.  A short walk down steps brought us to a small river with interesting stone columns.  

  The most fun was the Susa Hornfels, a beautiful rock face on a rock beach.  The rocks near the water were absolutely filled to the brim with shells and plant growth.  After taking pictures which I would subsequently lose, we sat for a while and enjoyed peacefulness.

  In Hagi we would have a rental house for four nights.  It was two stories and we had our own rooms.  Aside from some dinners and a glass blowing expedition, I decided to let Miles just stay home and game, as he has resisted doing activities with me more and more as the trip continued.

  We went to dinner together that first night, to an Udon place, one of the very few restaurants that was open past 2:30 PM.  I decided to try the curry udon soup.  It came with a bowl of scallions, to add as much as you'd like.  I ended up getting this curry udon soup every night we were here.

  Japan has a seemingly tiny amount of breakfast restaurants, and I could not find a cafe that would open earlier than 10 AM.  The seven eleven was directly in front of the city hall, which dwarfed it considerably and so made the setup look strange.   I bought some buttered toast with sweet beans, similar to what I had the first few mornings in Tokyo.

  I stayed home for most of the second day, which involved a lot of catch up sleep.  The following day we had a 1:00 reservation for Miles to have a glassblowing workshop.  Since there was a language barrier, the glassblower mimed and demonstrated what he wanted Miles to do.  It wasn't a very long session, and Miles was slightly confused about some of the instructions, but overall he had a good time.  We would pick up the resulting glass(which was left in its packaging and has flown home with him since) on the morning that we would leave town.

  After dropping Miles off at the apartment, I set out west to wander through the town streets, with the eventual aim of reaching Mount Shizukiyama and the town's castle ruins.  The first interesting place I came across was this shop.  I was unable to find a corresponding spot on google maps, but it was certainly interesting looking. 

A cat sleeping on the air conditioning unit.

  I visited a sculpture park but there really wasn't much to see, so I sidestepped into the grounds below the mountain and began my ascent.  It was extremely, extremely buggy.  I pushed through and reached the top, which had beautiful views from three sides.

  I took a different random route back, passing beautiful houses and walls.  I peaked into some if the pottery shops, which the town was known for.  I ended up at an ice cream store that I had bookmarked previously, though this was not on purpose.  There was a large group of elderly Australians here with a guide.  It was ice cream on top of a flavored jelly.  I picked one with a name sounding the least familiar.  I believe it ended up being orange soda flavored and was kind of gross to be honest.  The ice cream itself was good.

  The last day in town had pouring rain for the vast majority of the day.  The thunder was so bad that the house shook once and since I was on the second floor, above Miles, he had thought that I had fallen.  When it looked to be mostly clear, I grabbed an umbrella, went out to eat, and then stopped at the Hagi Uragami Museum.  The staff was extremely friendly and I do not believe I saw another patron anywhere while walking around.  It was small, but one room in particular had striking and original pieces.

This picture was taken from the upper balcony because the piece was so gigantic.

 As I was about to leave, the staff asked me to fill out an English feedback forum.  After I did so, they presented me with a small gift in the form of a fancy small paper note holder, with a mountain on the front.   I left the museum and began to rain again.  It rained for the rest of the night.