Japan 6.9: A deep cave, a cotton candy UFO, and the end of Miles' trip

  We said goodbye to Hagi, picked up Miles' glass, and drove south.  The day's journey was mostly about driving to Fukuoka, dropping off the car, and then resting at the airport hotel.  To break up the day, I decided to have us stop at the Akiyoshido Cave.  We were only the second car in the main parking lot.  We grabbed our umbrellas because the weather looked unsure, and within seconds it began to rain.

  There was a main walkway up to the cave, lined with shops.  The town seemed to be barely functional, with 2/3 of the shops closed down.  There were a handful of people on the way to the cave.  As we were entering, a large tour group was departing, so we had the place mostly to ourselves, with only a few other couples around.  It was a one kilometer walk, with tons of limestone formations.  At the end, Miles declared it to be his favorite part of the trip so far. 

  Originally, I had planned to have us go to a mini pig cafe in Fukuoka.  Unfortunately, the car rental return did not go as smoothly as I had planned.  I booked through Hertz, but they gave it to the Toyota Rent a Car.  The Hertz website showed a return address, which is where I navigated to.  It was a very tight space with tons of people returning cars.  We gave the keys away, had the car inspected, and removed our luggage.  We were sent to the desk, where I encountered a very difficult language barrier exchange.  The person who accepted the car, came inside and explained to me that I was supposed to return it to the international rental return, and this spot was the domestic.  The international return was on the other side of the airport, about twelve minutes away.  We loaded up the car again and set out.

  The international return spot was completely empty, with a staff that understood English.  The plan was to reach our airport hotel directly from the subway connected to the airport.  In order to get there, however, we had to take a shuttle from the rental to the bus stop of the international departure side of the airport, and then take another bus to the domestic side, which was where the subway was.  Two stops later and we were at the correct station.  We had to ask directions at an information booth on how to actually get out of the station, because it was a multiple basement level mall slash station.  Our hotel was right outside.

  By this point we were tired, and it was raining, so Miles wanted to stay in.  I left to get dinner.  While navigating to a ramen place featuring thinner noodles that represent the region, I encountered a small cafe with a cat operating the cash register.

  The next day we flew to Tokyo and settled into our hotel.  Miles had forgotten his headphones on the airplane and was pretty upset.  I searched google maps for potential spots that might have his headphones.  I walked to the Sony Headquarters in Ginza, which had a wide assortment of products, but did not have the ones I was interested in, in stock.  He directed me to the nearby Bic Camera.  The bic Camera had the exact same model headphones that he had had. I had noticed that my earpiece's wire was exposed, so it was time for a replacement for me.  With the Japanese exchange rate combined with being a tax free purchase, a replacement set for me would be slightly cheaper than usual.  After bringing the tag to the cash register, to exchange for the actual item, they informed me that they were out of stock.

  The next day was Miles' last full day of the trip.  Our main mission was to get cotton candy for him, at the Totti Candy Factory.  I don't recall having visited this area before, but it was a mob scene, filled with tons and tons of tourists.  We got him the UFO shaped cotton candy.  I decided to get what I later found out was a crepe cone, with mostly whipped cream and not ice cream.  It was a crepe wrapping the whipped cream and served like an ice cream cone.

  There was the same chain of the mini pig cafe here, which was a two minute walk away.  When we arrived, it said that it was by reservation only, and they were all reserved for the day.  I had never encountered a reservation system before, so I had not thought to check the site for this.  There was a Bic Camera store nearby, in Shibuya.  We could have walked or taken the train.  Miles chose the train.

  We went to the audio section but couldn't find the model that I had wanted, so I asked the staff.  They said that they had it just next store in their extension store, 2 buildings down.  I was finally able to purchase it.

  Miles departed the next day without issue.  It was a smooth and easy process.

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.