Scotland 2.1: A gorge from Outlander, 12 hours sleep, and a few castles on the way to Glencoe

We landed in Dublin, Ireland Airport at 5 am, after just a 6 hour flight.  A few hours later and we landed in Glasgow.  We stopped at the car rental place, Europcar, which promptly started to upsell me on a vehicle that would cost "just" 15-20 pounds more.  Her motivation for me to upgrade the car was that it had a slightly bigger trunk.  She explained that if we were to go places in between lodgings, we might get robbed.  I asked, "15 more total?"  She replied, "Per day."  I said, "No thanks."  Then, they gave me a hard time with the insurance and wanted me to pay nearly double the price for something that my credit card offers for free.  It was an irritating experience.

Our first location was only thirty minutes away, in Balloch, of Loch Lomod.  I chose this place because of its closeness to Glasgow, while still having a place of interest, a nearby gorge.  They allowed us to check in before noon, which was great.  We ate lunch on a nearby refurbished steamship that overlooked the lake.  Then, we left for the Finnich Glen.  After only a fifteen minute drive, we parked the car and walked toward the gorge.  It took us a while to find the correct entrance, so after a false start, we were on our way.  We passed other visitors, who told us about an easy way and a harder way to get down to the level of the water.

First, we took the easier way, which essentially took us to where the gorge begins.  We walked along the sides and climbed on rocks until we were no longer able to continue forward without getting wet.



We walked back up to the tops and decided to try the harder way, which led down some narrow steps.  As it had been a dry day, the steps actually weren't very hard at all.  There was a tiny section where we had to go in the dirt, because the stairs alongside it were a little wacky, but it was no big deal.  Now we were more in the center of the gorge, within sight of the main attraction, called The Devil's Pulpit.  It was a little precarious to get to, without getting wet, but we made it.  Stephanie actually found an easier way than Miles and I took, so we used her way when we left.



The whole area was absolutely beautiful, which made it super disappointing that we found litter throughout the area.  Bottles and cans were just lodged in between rocks or floating in the water.  Absolutely disgusting.  How can anyone leave things behind like that, especially in such a place?  Anyhow, we took the stairs out, it began to drizzle, and we headed home.  Stephanie reinformed me, back in the room, that Outlander filmed a scene in the gorge.



We went to sleep at 8 PM and woke up at 8:30 AM.  We ate the breakfast at the bed and breakfast.  Apparently, the areas we were going in Scotland did not have many hotels.  We packed our luggage tightly into the trunk, with only one small bag left for the floor of the back seat, covered that with some jackets, and off we went.

Our first stop was at Inveraray Castle, about an hour away.  We had first attempted to see a castle that was still lived in, about 10 minutes from Inveraray, but the front gates were closed.  We parked the car, which was in a lot with someone manning the gate, and went into the castle.

This view was opposite the castle entrance.  We would later take the path up to the tower on the mountain.

As we entered, someone welcomed us and handed Miles a quiz.  There were about 14 questions, with three possible answers each.  He had to scratch out his choice with a coin.  If he got them all right, he would get a prize at the gift shop at the end.  It was a furnished castle, on two floors, but I didn't find anything impressive.  I much prefer the outside of furnished castles to the stuffy interiors.  One thing we did learn by helping Miles with the quiz, was that five ghosts supposedly haunted the castle.  Miles picked up his prize pencil with "Inveraray Castle" on it, and left for the gardens.

The gardens were of decent size.  It was pleasant enough.



I told Miles that we would be doing a two hour walk near to the castle, and he asked for water.  We all decided to pick up water.  This turned out to be a very good idea.



I had read that it was a mild walk, so I expected it to be not very steep.  Of course, I did not see the elevation of that tower when I did my reading online.  It was also the second day in a row with sun, in the mid to high 70s.  I was in jeans as well.  Nonetheless, it was a pleasant hike.  The views from the top were very nice.



On the way down, it became cloudy, and i tied my hat, with the velcro, into one of my belt loops.  About 15 minutes later, I looked down, and my hat was nowhere to be seen.  I turned around and walked back up.  Luckily, it was only half of the distance back to the top.  As we were walking down, we heard the "baas" of nearby sheep.  It began drizzling just before we reached the castle.  We stopped in and had a very lovely lunch.

The next attraction was a 25 minute drive away, at Kinchurn Castle.  The castle was free to visit.  It was not too big, but you were free to explore, which is our preferred type of castle.  It was raining, so we had our rain jackets with us.  The castle overlooked a lake, and on the far side of the castle were a few highland cows, which are an excellent variant of cow.  They walked just near us, and eventually, a limping sheep came round as well.



Finally, we had an hour drive to our next bed and breakfast, in Ballachulish, near Glencoe.  We stopped at numerous pull over areas along the way.  This first one was a field that was filled with large rocks.  It is hard to see in the picture, but it was a very unusual sight.  This is the best I could do, with only one pull over area alongside it.



The other pull over areas showed off the mountains.



About ten minutes from our bed and breakfast was a three part waterfall.



We arrived at the bed and breakfast, brought in our stuff, and walked to a nearby coop.  We picked up food and brought it back, so we could relax for the night.  On the way to the coop we found a slug and a snail.  Here is the snail.



We are staying here for three nights and have been attempting to determine our itinerary for tomorrow.  There is a tourist center in town, that we will be going to first thing tomorrow morning, to ask them a few questions about two nearby islands.

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...