Wrapping Up Hiroshima

For those paying attention and playing along at home, yes, we are actually back in Australia, but I'm still wrapping up Japan posts! Bear with me, there aren't too many to go (I think).

After the week of touring around Hiroshima with my parents (I really do feel like we saved up most of the Hiroshima highlights to do with them and then smashed them out quick smart), we had about five days left in Hiroshima, and just over a week left in Japan. Most of our Hiroshima list was done, and we weren't feeling particularly energetic about trying to find new things. Even though it was our "last few days", we were also just doing life. 

Pretty much the only thing the girls really wanted to make sure they got one last go at was karaoke. I love how confident they are and how much they enjoying singing along now. I think we will miss our karaoke sessions in Australia. 

The other thing they did was a live call in to their school in Australia to compete in the Talent Show Finals with their Soran Bushi Dance. They had recorded their entry when we were in Shodoshima, and were so proud to have made it through to the finals. 

It was pretty high energy, getting the house ready and sorting out how to do the video call and sync up the music etc. They were so excited by it all, and getting to see the whole school on the other side of the video. They didn't place and were bummed to not be able to see their friend's performances, but still had a great time. You can watch their audition video from the beach of Shodoshima here. 

Steve worked late for most of the week and took Friday afternoon off early so we could go to a brewery that was just a couple of train stations down from us. The Sakurao actually do whiskey and gin. We were hoping for a sake brewery, but just had to take what we could get at this point in our trip. Steve did do a sake tasting earlier in Hiroshima, so we didn't completely miss out. The brewery tour was pretty interesting, and I did taste the gin and whisky the offered us at the end, but I'm still not much of a fan. 

We went to the local onsen (again, sans kids) for an evening which was so fantastic. I love onsen, but have never been to an onsen that was so busy! There were so many families, but also (in the girls side at least) loads of pairs or groups of friends just sitting around the baths chatting away. It was so busy and social. It was also probably the biggest that I've been to, with several indoor baths as well as a number of outdoor ones. We walked home very relaxed that night. 

All the packing that we did was less relaxing. I kept oscillating between sad to leave and (catching the girls excitement) happy to go home. Watching our bags stack up with all the stuff was so daunting too, and it made everything seem that much harder. There was lots of "Why did we book extra time in Osaka?" kind of thoughts, since the girls were so ready to just go home. Also: "Is it even going to be worth it anyway?" thinking about what we had planned and if we could find the energy to put other things in. Steve was so stoic through my emotional ups and downs, and even the girls just kept being positive about it all. 

The last night we were in Hiroshima, there was a local Autumn Yukata Festival on at the main shopping street (Coin Street). It was fun to wander up and down the busy street seeing lots of people in traditional clothes and hearing performances from a number of different groups, some on traditional instruments others not. 

I was going to include our 3ish days in Osaka in this post too, but what we ended up doing was way bigger and more action packed than we anticipated, so I'll pop it in a seperate post. Stay tuned; the end is near! 

Hiroshima Family Visitors

The second half of our time in Hiroshima began with a final round of visitors from Australia. This time, my parents flew in to actually stay with us for a whole week. They had wanted to come earlier in our stay, but their own travel plans gave them very few options. 

The first few days they were here were very rainy. Lots of night time downpours and then on and off during the day. We managed to get home from Hiroshima station with all the luggage safely, but the next day was not as smooth. A huge storm in the night, which woke us up at 2am when lightning cracked across the sky and the sound echoed off all the mountains around us put the whole region on landslide alert. There wasn't any immediate risk, but the update notifications made sleep pretty tricky. 

On top of that, sometime in the morning a tree came down on the main train line and Steve's way into work was actually out for the entire day. I had been planning on taking my parents and the girls out to a transport museum, for the day, so it wasn't a huge problem for Steve to work from home. What was a factor though, was that since the main train was out, everyone who usually caught that had switched to the smaller line, so the wait time was enormous. 

We did join the line for a while before aborting and going the opposite direction to a department store shopping area. Definitely not my activity of choice, but in an effort to be out of the house and away from the train, the options were slim. 

We walked through an area apparently famous for kendama (a Japanese traditional wooden cup and ball game). Kendama mascots everywhere, and the manhole covers also reflecting the kendama icon. At the shops the girls got new school shoes since they had both grown out of the ones we bought with us from Australia. I don't know if any of Sophie's Australian clothes will fit when we return. My mum got various things from shops for people, but mostly we just bummed around killing time though. 

The next day we again tried to get to the transport museum only to find (after an hour of train travel) that it was closed! I don't think I will ever understand the way Japanese businesses decide to randomly close midweek. We again pivoted to a shopping alternative, since we'd already come north of Hiroshima, and I took my parents to a second hand store called Book Off, where my dad found a good quality train for his set up at home. At least the train trip out was fun, seeing the mountains and rivers of Hiroshima from a different view. 

That afternoon we came back home via Hiroshima City because my Uncle from Sydney had decided last min to fly in and join us for the week! He must have loved his visit to Tokyo in June so much that he had to come back again before we left. 

The next day, Steve took some time off work and all of us met on the train and took the ferry over to Miyajima for the day. Again, the weather was cloudy and threatening rain, so not the best. The heat and humidity were also quite high. This was my first visit to Miyajima though, and I really enjoyed it. 

It turns out my Pa-pou (grandfather) had been stationed here after World War 2 for 18months, on guard duty and helping with the clean up. My mum has pictures of him (her dad) at these very statues in uniform. 

The island has lots of little shops and things to see down by the shore. I wish the weather had been better, because I was keen to go on the ropeway up to Mt Mizen and then walk back down through the forest, but it really wasn't worth it with all the clouds and the walk in the heat wouldn't have been fun. Instead we wandered around dodging the occasional deer and enjoying the food. Steve had some beer from Miyajima Brewery and the rest of us had momiji (maple shaped and flavoured cakes) with red bean, ice cream and strawberries. 

The next day was Saturday, and we met in town to visit the Peace Park, Hiroshima Castle (rebuilt after WW2) and generally wander. Thinking about what is happening in the world and seeing the destruction of this building (known as the Atomic Dome) preserved after the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, was pretty confronting. Are we as people destined to just repeat the cycle of war again and again? Will we always be sweeping away the rubble after the destruction to rebuild? 

There are no real answers, and I hope the answer is that we will learn from our past. In the grounds of Hiroshima Castle, there is a eucalyptus tree that survived the bomb and is still growing, 80 years on. So I guess there is life to come. 

My parents and I have all been to the museum in the Peace Park before, and were not keen to relive the experience. I also didn't want to take the girls in, since I remembered finding it a bit scaring when I went as a 17 year old in 2003. Steve and Yianni went in and the rest of us went home via a hobby shop so Dad could get some specific train tracks for his set. 

We finally managed to get to the transport museum the next day, which was fun. The kids areas were probably aimed at some slightly younger kids than ours, but still enjoyable. Our last day together had the best weather yet, and we took a train south, just over the boarder to Yamaguchi Prefecture to visit the Kintaikyo Bridge at Iwakuni. This was a recommendation from someone Steve worked with and it was so cool. 

The bridge was fascinating to walk over, such unique construction and shape! On the other side, we took a cable car up the mountain and visited the small castle at the top with some lovely views. 

It was a smaller castle, but so cool on top of the mountain. The inside had been turned into a museum when it was rebuilt. This one was not destroyed in a war, but by order of the Shougan, who decided each prefecture only needed one castle. Seems ridiculous that a perfectly good castle would have been torn down like that. 

At the bottom was a snake museum with the White Snakes of Iwakuni on display. These are a mutation of the Japanese Rat Snake that are all white and non venomous. The museum was small but the snakes were cool. We beat the heat with some ice cream (after some agonising over the choice of flavour from the 50 options), and then had udon for lunch at a local restaurant. 

We were back at the station in time to beat a sudden downpour and say goodbye. It had been a short visit but we had done so much the time just flew by! 

Now there is only five days left of Hiroshima, and just over a week of Japan all up. The girls updated me on how many days to go every morning. Their excitement at going home was catching and I've started to feel more positive for home, rather than sad for leaving Japan. 

I will say though, that when I think about going back to work, it's a struggle. Starting again in Term 4 really gives the feeling of being behind the eight ball like no other. There will be so much to do, and so little time to do it. Will I even remember the student's names? Here's hoping, but that's a problem for future Paula.

Hiroshima

From the beginning, our time in Japan was loosely divided up into three parts: Tokyo, travel and Hiroshima. Even with three extra days in Osaka tacked on at the end before we fly out, Hiroshima really signalled the end was near for us. Time in Tokyo had played all sorts of tricks on us, slow and fast at different times and then suddenly over at the start of August. The weeks of traveling around and exploring new parts of Japan were more steady, but so action packed that they flashed by. 

As we took the shinkansen to Hiroshima I was all kinds of emotional. Not only wrestling with the "Japan is nearly over" feeling, but also getting my head around a month in a new city. Was Hiroshima the right place to finish our trip? It was so much smaller compared to Tokyo; would we have enough things to do? Was our new house going to be ok for Steve to work in, or would we have to come up with another solution for that? 

So much unknown. I tried to rest knowing it would all work out (God is good, all the time!), but it was tough. Made tougher when we got off the shinkansen and as we were going down the escalators, realised that Rachel had left both her wallet with train pass and water bottle on the shinkansen. It was now speeding off to Hakata. I was confident we could get it back, but the first step when I talked to the person at the information desk was: "Please call this number." 

Goodness did that phrase strike fear into our hearts every time we heard it. Japan is still so reliant on phone calls and they are honestly so difficult for us to make. Not only that we would have to try to have a conversation in Japanese without any visual prompt or gestures to help with understanding, but even before that, we'd need a phone that could make a call. Even with roaming on my phone, it was yet to connect successfully when we tried. 

I left the information booth armed with a set of phone numbers to call, and a QR code that would give me an online chat. The helpfulish person at the desk had said it should/would be found and kept at the station in Hataka for three days. (She also suggested we could go get it ourselves. Hakata is an hour and a half on a shinkansen down to Kyushu, which is an expensive way to get $15 worth of stuff.) After that she said it would be given to the police as lost property. If we could get in contact they should be able to arrange it to be posted back to us. That was very phone call dependant. 

I may have cried that night trying to sort out how I was feeling, but our Hiroshima apartment was quite spacious and had enough double beds for everyone which helped improve things somewhat. What the apartment wasn't was equiped with a desk for Steve to work at. We'd kinda figured that it would be a juggle from the photos, but the reality of not really have a second space (like a big enough coffee table for the girls and I to be at) meant that work from home wasn't really an option. 

Luckily, it seemed to be sorted fairly easily, since a quick google for co-working spaces near Hiroshima station gave us a few options, one of which seemed very straightforward. Monday morning rolled around and Steve spent some time working at the dining table (and on the lounge) while I battled the online chat to register Rachel's lost things with JR West. It took an hour and a half, and I needed to put in a phone number. I decided not to risk using mine, and asked my homestay sister if she would mind taking the call. 

After sorting that, Steve and I went together to find a doctor to look at his hand. This was the check up that would tell if the extra two and a half weeks of bandaging had finally helped the break start to heal. I was keeping my expectations very low, not wanting more disappointment after Takamatsu. 

We actually had the easiest time yet of finding a doctor to see us though. Our Hiroshima house was two streets away from a private hospital, so we figured we'd start a search for a doctor there. The hospital said they'd see us straight away and after filling out forms, we went to wait at the doctor's room for five minutes before Steve was seen. A quick chat and an x-ray and in twenty minutes, the doctor was saying he was happy with the progress and Steve could start exercising the hand. We very cautiously told him that we'd had that advice before and it was too soon. 

He was confident, but said to keep it bandaged and come back in two weeks for another check. It did look like healing was happening; praise God! We went off to Hiroshima station to check out the co-working space for Steve. It was a little hard to get set up initially (you needed an app that you couldn't get for a non-Japanese phone) but Steve found some work arounds and managed to get in. The space was new, clean and simple. 12 small cubicles with screens for people to connect to, private meeting rooms, toilets and a very basic kitchen (sink with hot and cold water). 

Even though commuting was a bit of a downer (and having to make packed lunches!), it was hardly the end of the world. All up it usually only took Steve a half hour or so door to door. After having lunch, I left Steve to finish his day's work and went home to the girls. On the way my homestay sister messaged to say that the JR West team had found Rachel's lost property and were happy to mail it to us (at our expense). I was so thankful. I went home and wrote a bunch of signs to stick up (our apartment was on the second floor of the building) to help the post guys. We needed to pay the postage in cash when the items were delivered, so I got my Yen ready too. 

Tuesday was a home day as we waited for the post to arrive (success!) and did some more homeschooling. The girls were pretty good at getting stuff done though, so the next day we went back to Hiroshima Station to the Pokemon Centre and to have lunch with Steve. 

Okonomiyaki is what Hiroshima is known for. This cabbaged based dish is different all over Japan. In Tokyo the style is called Monja. Osaka have the basic "cabbage pancake" situation that most people recognise, but in Hiroshima, they add noddles (either soba or udon) to the whole thing. It was delicious and the girls approved. 

Manhole covers of Hiroshima dedicated to the various types of okonomiyaki

The rest of the start to our Hiroshima stay was finishing off the homeschooling, and breaking up our days at home with excursions out. Rachel asked to go to the beach, so we found one on an island out in Hiroshima bay to swim in. 

It was a warm day, but the water was so cooling it was worth trekking out there. The beach was zero sand, just broken shells, so not the best to walk over. The girls sketched the landscapes after our swim. 

It was good to be cooking at home again, despite the fact that our Hiroshima apartment was less than equiped. For the third time in Japan, I went out to the 100Yen store and bought spoons and butter knives. There was also very strangely no rice cooker here, so I've learnt to make rice in a pot (thank you Nagi from RecipeTinEats!)

Steve randomly bought some sake from the grocery store one night. This one (below) is called maboroshi, which means illusion and was delicious. I struggled to get enough of my school work done as well as home schooling the girls, so he took the girls out one Saturday into town and they had fun exploring the kids science centre and planetarium. Having to get my head around all the work needed for Term 4 was a huge reality check for me. The end was truely near. 

When I had started home schooling the girls in Imabari, and looked at the list of things they needed to learn and get done, I wasn't sure we'd manage it all. Somehow though, by the second week of Hiroshima, all of their work was done and assessments sent off to their Australian teachers. They also worked hard on presentations for their classes, so they can share all about Japan when they get back too. 

Quicker than I would have liked to admit, two weeks rolled past and Steve went back for a check up on his hand. In and out in a half hour and we had the good news that the bones had visibly started fusing. The doctor said that it was time to take the bandage off and carefully start using the hand again. Almost couldn't believe it! 

We celebrated with a walk and some delicious cream puffs from the local bakery. Despite my worries at the start, Hiroshima has been a nice little place to be. It's much slower paced than Tokyo. Trains are less reliable but still efficient means of transport. There is enough space on the road to have an actual footpath most of the time, which makes it even easier to walk around. The weather has been hit and miss, lots of rain while we are here, but it's beautiful none the less. The rivers through Hiroshima city, the mountains around it and the clear blue sea are all stunning. Only a few weeks left now. 

Okunoshima and Onomichi

Our final bit of moving around before we settled in Hiroshima for four weeks was to travel from Imabari, via Okunoshima and stay a night in Onomichi. This would take us from Shikoku back to the mainland of Japan (Honshu). Even though Shikoku is a seperate island, it's actually connected to Honshu a several points with enormous bridges. From Imabari, the Shimanami Kaido is a bridge/road that passes over six small islands in the Seto Inland Sea and finishes in Onomichi. 

I've added it as a little bridge icon on the map above, but it's a bit hard to appreciate it from that. None of the smaller islands that it crosses over are shown at all. It's a popular cycling route and I can see why. The view as you drive over the bridges is stunning. 

A better shot of the islands and the
roads and bridges connecting them 
from here.

We will get to that in a bit, but first, it's always best to drive with four working wheels on your car. 

We had the unhappy discovery as we packed up to leave Imabari that morning that the front passenger wheel was flat. We didn't noticed it until Steve had just driven to the end of our very narrow street; he then had the unpleasant task of trying to reverse back into an open spot so we could assess the situation. We figured replacing it would be straightforward enough, but then unpacked the boot to find there was no spare. 

One of the neighbours came out of the house immediately offered to help by visiting the car shop across the road to raise assistance for us. It was 8:30 on a Saturday morning though, so they were understandably, not open yet. She assured me that someone would come and offered local phone numbers of places I could call. Or, I would have been able to call with a local phone. Not so much with my Australian mobile. Even with roaming, calls have not yet worked once in our five months here. 

The friendly neighbourhood car guy came around and immediately began assisting us by plugging in the tyre re-pump kit that did come with the car, and then running back to his work to get their kit when we realised ours didn't have the hose to actually connect it to the tyre. The wheel pumped up quickly enough, and he stayed with us and througherly checked the wheel for where it was punctured. We found nothing. Such a mystery!

After I told him where we were headed (lots of driving), he advised going to a servo to check the pressure and if we needed to, to get a new wheel there. We were pretty set on getting the new wheel, since we didn't want to risk this one deflating again, even if it seemed to be working fine now. The recommended servo was a 15 min drive, but the helpful car guy was confident we would make it no problems. 

Off we went, stopped at the servo and got a new wheel for the car with no troubles. Then our journey continued, over the bridges and islands. 

Couldn't get many good photos, but the view was stunning. We were pretty lucky that we didn't have any actual plans for the day that relied on a tight schedule, because the whole flat tyre affair set us back about an hour. We made a brief stop at a park for a snack and a walk around. 

The park was a rose garden, so the gift shop was selling rose ice cream, which we, of course, sampled. The girls thought this was better than the olive and soy sauce ice creams that we'd had on Shodoshima. Maybe. When then drove to a ferry terminal, parked the car and caught a ferry across to visit Okunoshima. 

This tiny island has a large population of wild rabbits that you can see hopping around and feed. It was also where Japan experimented with developing poisonous gas for warfare, but eventually concluded that it was inhumane and ceased production. There are a few spots on the island of the original army/research base that serve as museums for people to visit. Steve went into the main one while the girls and I enjoyed the bunnies. 

So cute! We had some convenience store onigiri that we grabbed for lunch (there was really not much else on the island, so I was glad we picked that up before catching the ferry) and then wandered down to the beach. In the rush of the morning with the car drama, I'd clean forgotten that packing swimmers could be an option, so it was a bit disappointing that we'd left them in the car when the day was so hot and the water was so beautiful and cool. 

The girls and I went in up to our knees and it was difficult to tear ourselves away, even from that small relief. We had to catch the ferry back and then continue driving over the bridges and islands to Onomichi. Onomichi is a small port city which is very cute. We stayed the night and then used the morning to explore around. 

The first thing the girls and I did was a maneki neko (beckoning cat) painting workshop. It was a cute little thing for the morning (Steve wandered around town), if a bit expensive. 

I am glad we did it though, because we have some very cute maneki neko to take home with us. Can you tell who did which cat? 

After this, we wandered the Main Street and took the cable car to the top of the mountain for some fun views. The heat had really kicked in though, so we ate our onigiri lunch that I'd packed and then trekked down the mountain. 

Saw these lovely furin on the way down. 

And went via Cat Alley where all the cracks in the pavement and random stones on the path were painted like cats. Fun!

Then we had about an hour and a half of driving to take our trusty hire car back to Okayama where we picked it up all those weeks ago. In the car for the last two weeks of driving, we'd been listening to an audio book, which we usually do on family travel adventures. This time was Trouble Twisters by Garth Nix and Sean Williams. Rachel had listened to it before, since she enjoyed Garth Nix's Mister Monday series, but it was new for the rest of us. It's definitely written for a younger audience (think 8-10, rather than 10 - 14), but was enjoyable none the less. 

Dropping the car back was pretty funny because we were reimbursed for the new tyre that we'd bought. Typically Japan, they reimbursed us in cash. None of us were excited about carrying our heavy suitcases to the station, but we were also relieved that this was one of the last times we'd have to do this.

Next up: Hiroshima!

Imabari

The adventure in Shikoku continues! This time we left the mountains of Kajigamori with Imabari our destination. 

Japan has this thing where cities often have the same name as the prefectures (think states in Australia) that they are in. For example, Hiroshima City is in Hiroshima Prefecture. Imabari wasn't exactly like this, but Imabari City is very different to the general area of Imabari. We had booked an AirBnb that was advertised as "in Imabari" and maybe it's on me for not doing more research, but we were not really in Imabari at all. Well, Imabari City at least. 

On the map above, I put the star in the general location of where we stayed. Imabari City is actually on the other side of that tip of the island. It wasn't a big deal, but where we ended up was a pretty tiny village. Before we get to the tiny village though, we had a full day of driving first. 

We left Kajigamori and stopped in at the waterfalls we tried to walk to from the top of the mountain the day before. The path from the carpark at the bottom was much more manageable and we had waterfall success. 

We trucked on with our day, aiming for a swimming spot at a river running through another gorge. Though difficult to find a park and then a place to get down to the water, we ended up at a little spot just off the main road. The water was so clear and cool it was perfect to be in. The girls and I climbed down the weir to swim around the bottom section in the photo below. Steve enjoyed being in up to his knees before retreating to the shade once more. 

I could have swum there for hours, but we got hungry, so went to a little cafe for lunch and continued our journey. 

We honestly could not get over just how beautiful Shikoku was. Everywhere we drove was amazing view, mountains, green fields, blue rivers. I can't imagine what it would be like to come back in winter when the mountains are covered in snow! I did navigate us to a second waterfall for another break in our driving, but it was almost as heavily touristed as the vine bridge was back in the Iya valley. There were five carparks, but each only had space for six cars, and were already full. 

As we were inching our way up the congested mountain road with everyone else wanting to see this waterfall, it started raining. We were lucky enough to find a park, so we got out and put on raincoats, hoping for the best. It was not to be. The rain was coming down so hard we were soaked in minutes, so after using the facilities and Steve getting a quick coffee from the vending machine on the side of the road, we went back to the car to continue our journey. 

Navigating the mountain road in the heavy rain was tough, but it didn't last; just on the other side of the mountains was clear blue sky and beautiful day. We got into our Imabari house in the evening after a grocery shop. This place had a desk and chair for Steve to work at, so we were there for a whole week. It was a pretty good place, though the carpark was down the street and the street itself was only 2m across. Driving through that was stress central for Steve!

The next day (Sunday) we went over to Matsuyama, which is the capital city in the prefecture. We did the usual touristy things, trecking up the hill to the castle and eating shaved ice at the top to cool off. 

Matsuyama is a port city, and again, the views were amazing. Steve and I just kept enjoying them, but the girls were so over it. Inconceivable! 

I love the way these trees are supported. We wandered down the Main Street and had an unconventional lunch of pancakes at a restaurant called the Flying Scotsman. I may have picked up a few more kimono things from a second hand store while my loving family waited patiently. Then back to Imabari to get ready for the week. 

For all that where we stayed in Imabari was a tiny strip of a village, it was also a short ten min walk to some pretty perfect beach. Again, can't get over how picturesque it was there. 

The whole "town" was full of traditional Japanese houses with their beautiful tiled roofs and garden walls. Almost everyone we saw was over 60years old, and it was the quietest place we stayed. Possibly even rivalling our two nights in the mountains. We could see so much evidence of the aging population and people leaving the small towns for big cities everywhere. 

Across from our house were two others that were obviously abandoned. One you could see broken windows and rooms full of leftover possessions, and the other had a partially collapsed roof with a tree growing out of it. Sadly in these old areas there is not much that can be done, because the streets are to narrow to get in any kind of demolition or renovation equipment. 

Since Steve had a desk to work at and we were here for a week, it was time for our holidays to start wrapping up and face some reality. This meant it was time for me to home school the girls. 

We had done some Australian school work back in Tokyo, when their teachers sent assignments through. Now I sat down with them every day and we worked through English, Maths, Science, Digital Technology, and Humanities as well as a hefty amount of Japanese. For the most part home schooling these girls was easy, because I know mostly what I'm doing and because they want to learn. Not to say every moment was rainbows and sunshine, but we got the job done. 

Investigating what happens when light passes through glass

I broke things up with outings, including a walk to our local park, which was probably the biggest thing in town. Set on the side of a small mountain, this park had lots of winding paths, a clock tower look out, statues of the zodiac animals, the biggest play equipment we've seen in Japan and some stunning views. Pretty lucky for us to be right near it, so I guess I don't mind that we weren't in Imabari City after all. 

Along with the big play equipment was an enormous roller slide. Japanese parks often have these in varying lengths, but this was the longest we'd seen. It took a full min and a half to slide from top to bottom, had tunnels, turns and twists galore. 

Entry to the roller slide

I really enjoyed being at the park with the girls, and it took me back to all the park trips I'd done with the kids when I ran a family day care back in the day. This was exactly the kind of place I would have taken the kids to if I were running a family day care here in Japan. 

So lucky to have been able to hang out with my girls like this. We watched a few eagle/raptor type birds just hovering in the air over the park for ages. Shikoku was the place we saw the most of these, all over the mountains from Shodoshima through to Imabari. Possibly the coolest wild animal sighting that we had. 

Our week here was pretty mundane as far as tourist travel goes. Steve was working, the girls and I were homeschooling and I was starting to get my head back into work mode as I addressed a bunch of email and to do things that I needed to catch up on. We didn't go out much (there was really nothing much to do in the village except maybe the beach and the park) but just got on with life. 

Morning walk around the rice fields

The last day we were there (Friday), we drove out to this lookout over the water. Down the hill was a beach which we went to. Rachel promptly got into the water and started catching things. It was beautiful and a great way to end our Shikoku stay. 

That night we went out for dinner at Otousan's (Dad's) which was a small shop with an old Japanese guy making the meals on his own. He looked a little worried when we came in, but relaxed when I read the (entirely Japanese) menu to the girls and Steve. The food was delicious and huge and the owner thanked all of us for studying Japanese so hard. 

Now, onward to the end!