Getting Reacquainted 8 – The Inland Sea – 瀬戸内海 [Setonaikai], Day 2

Sunrise - [if it doesn't, seen or unseen, nothing else matters]

on the beach

"preservation" area and mom and pop store

     Day 2 greeted us with a breathtaking sunrise. After a leisurely cup of coffee in the futon, we headed for a last soak in the hot spring bath followed by breakfast, checkout and a stroll along the beach and breakwaters before setting off to the ferry landing for the 10:10 boat to Omishima Island.

house overgrown with weeds and vines

     We arrived early in the port town of Kinoe and had some time to explore what the ferry attendant told us was a “preservation area”, which means older wooden buildings constructed in a traditional Japanese style. We found the old street in a somewhat dilapidated and abandoned looking condition. Many of the old houses were in a state of disrepair, some in a rather advanced state of decay, overgrown with weeds and neglected vines. The few inhabitants we saw around a shop with some fruit and vegetables on display on the side of the road were elderly—a good example of the depopulation and abandonment of the rural towns and villages by the younger generations. Even the ferry landing was in a state of neglect and disrepair, but the ferryboat showed up right on time. In Japan, the trains (and ferries) run on time--no matter what!

street looks empty and abandoned

ferry arriving [note broken rusty pipes], on time

many small dry docks among the islands

goin' fishing

one of the suspension bridges on the Shimanami Highway
(not my photo, courtesy of the web)

what the well-dressed "pirate" wore

"pirate" boat with flag logo

     Our first destination after landing on Omishima Island was the interchange to get onto the Shimanami Highway and head south to Oshima Island where there is a “pirate” museum that Road Buddy wanted to see. They weren't really pirates of the peg leg and eye patch variety. They started out as guides for merchant boats through the tricky currents and whirlpools around the islands becoming quite successful and wealthy “businessmen” in their own right. 

whirlpool
(courtesy of Japan Travel -
 on the web)

     Today there is a museum in their honor. You could also take a small tour boat across the road from the museum to go out and have a look at a whirlpool and we were considering doing that as well. However, the time we arrived at the boat landing was too early to see the whirlpool, since the tide was not right, so we just looked around the museum for a while and then started to head back north on the Shimanami until we started to feel hungry and got off the highway at a rest stop on Ikuchi Island to look for some sandwiches, but couldn't find any.

intricately carved gate at Kosanji Temple

     While waiting for Road buddy I was looking at an information board about the area and noticed a colorful intriguing looking temple on Ikuchi Island called Kosanji. When she returned I told her about it and showed her the poster [similar to the photo on the right] and we decided to go and have a look and perhaps find a convenience store with sandwiches and potato chips and do a picnic at the temple. 

Conclusion later...

Getting Reacquainted 7 – The Inland Sea – 瀬戸内海 [Setonaikai]

Map -- Inland Sea Route

The Inland Sea - soft and hazy under a cloudy sky

     The winter phenomenon I call “cabin fever”, in relation to my own reaction to being cooped up for long winter days indoors, starts to get the better of me by the time mid-March rolls around. The feeling is as inevitable as the diurnal cycle or the lunar cycle or the planet's annual transit of the sun. Unlike those astronomical phenomena, however, I can do something about cabin fever—take a trip and a change of scene.

our car is the one on the left

on the ferry

     So, as an antidote for our not taking a long winter trip this year, this Getting Reacquainted series is my best solution for the winter blahs. Accordingly, Road Buddy and I decided on a trip to a group of islands in the Inland Sea between here and the city of Hiroshima by car with a one-night stop at a hot spring inn on one of the islands. We chose two days according to the weather forecast: Day 1 was expected to be cloudy with occasional showers (good for driving) and Day 2 was expected to be hazy sunshine (good for sightseeing).

ferry with manga characters

     There is a recently built road, known as the Shimanami Highway, that connects the main island of Honshu, step-stoning its way through a series of islands, to the large island of Shikoku consisting of a series of bridges between the islands. In the old days you had to take time-consuming ferry boats, so although the toll is quite expensive to traverse the entire route, the convenience makes it worth the cost. Besides, the ferry boats also cost money to use. Since the weather for the second day was forecast to be better, we decided to go a roundabout route on Day 1 that uses a ferry boat to get to the island on which our inn was located since it isn't one of the islands connected by the new road. We rode another ferry on Day 2 to reach an island that is connected by the Shimanami Highway bridge/road.

Kinoe hot spring inn on the hilltop

yukata -
kimono for sleep

     Kinoe Inn, on the southern end of Osaki-Kamizima Island, commanded a marvelous view of many of the islands, which presented a soft misty appearance in the cloudy sky. Like all Japanese hot spring inns it has men's and women's public baths which are used communally. This inn's bath was perched above the Inland Sea and had a splendid view of the surrounding islands. It is hard to describe the feeling of lying and relaxing in the hot spring water and being surrounded by the glory of nature—the word meditative comes to mind. Hot spring bathing, by the way, is one of the favorite pastimes of the Japanese people. Some of these hot spring inns can be truly elegant. Kinoe Inn was not one of the elegant traditional kind that we stayed at in Izu recently, but the bath and its view were peerless. And, lest I forget, the sunrise the following morning was something to take your breath away.

     I will just post a few pictures of the first leg of our little getaway that certainly did wonders as a cure for cabin fever.

fresh water bath with lemons

salt water bath with me

view from our room

stranded jellyfish

hazy sunrise on the Setonaikai

solitude

More later....

Trembling on the brink ...

... of Spring


     It's the 'tween time; Winter not quite gone, Spring not quite come. One day a cold sharp north wind is howling across the valley and through the mostly bare branches, but the bloomin' plum trees are announcing that that old north wind is blowing his dying gasps, and the next day the temperature shoots up half a dozen Celsius and it's a good chance to dispel the cabin fever and get out and about town.

red Camellia

        Such a sunny warm day recently inspired me to get out the camera and go out and see if anything would catch my eye without the benefit of the usual oooh and aaah flowering cherry blossoms (too early), or the fiery warm colors of autumn (too late), or some crunchy white new fallen snow (can do without)—just mostly bare branches with hard buds, red Camellia and blue sky and old stone (and some new stone) walls.

orange lichen on old stone castle wall

       So, we jumped in the car and drove downtown to our city's famous landscape garden called 後楽園, (Kōrakuen) and 岡山城, (Okayama Castle) for some walking exercise and some photos of nature poised for the coming of the cherry blossoms and the very welcome warm southern breath of Spring. 

boats waiting for the summer family visitors

new stone wall reconstruction

 falcons soaring on the air currents

Southwest Gate to Okayama Castle

typical sculpted pine tree

       While walking along near the southwest gate (above left) I could hear a strange sound coming from the area to the left of the gate. I noticed these two cats eyeing each other as if they wanted to fight or, maybe, mate, and realized they were making the weird sound as in this video. 

Two cats in apparent mating ritual

reflections in the floodlights that illuminate the castle donjon at night

Momotaro (Peach Boy) the city mascot 

Paulownia buds

water fowl preening in the Asahi River

cherry buds still rather tight - no hint of color

spring training

Plum Crazy

             I looked out my window this morning and saw my next door neighbor working on the plum tree across the street. I guess you could say it’s her plum tree since it is directly across the street from her house. The tree is actually on what appears to be public land although we all use the narrow strip for small gardens. We plant a few herbs and another neighbor has a vegetable garden and the lady who was cutting branches in the plum tree also plants flowers and vegetables there as well. As a matter of fact, I have been surreptitiously cutting branches for flower arrangements from the same tree.

lady next door pruning the plum tree

            I got out my camera and took a couple of candid shots of the lady cutting the branches because, along with balmier weather lately, working on the tree looked so spring like. Later on in the day we left the house for a long walk and I noticed that the lady had cut several beautiful branches full of plum blossoms and just threw them away. So I showed the sacrilege to my wife and we decided to rescue the branches and use them for a large arrangement in our genkan (foyer) after returning from our walk.

            Here are a few photos of the result.

viewed slightly  from the right

viewed from the front 

viewed  from the entrance on the left

detail with basket ornamentation

detail of main branch

leftovers - no blossom wasted