Day 3: A Fox's Meal

Akira and Hitomi had moved into the city to open a cafe for Hitomi. She was a pastry chef and they had been working on their cafe for a while. Unfortunately the opening was weeks after our departure from Japan. Their home was above their cafe and many of their neighbours also lived above their businesses. In the morning, we heard the front gate open and rushed downstairs to catch Akira before he left for work. I wasn't sure whether to hug him or shake his hand so I decided to stand and wave awkwardly while thanking him. After packing up and saying goodbye to Hitomi and Negi-Chan we walked over to our next adventure.

On his last visit to Japan, Will the Botanist had become friends with Masa from Kyoto and Tom, a Belgian guy currently living in Taipei. Masa picked us all up in the city and we hopped into his stubby Japanese car with not much of an idea of where we were headed.

We drove Southwest towards Shikoku. Between Osaka and Shikoku was a small island called Awaji-shima, famous for its onions. There were thousands of them bursting out of the earth.

We stopped by a Udon restaurant on the side of the highway. It was brightly lit from the sunlight coming through the big windows and there was a cool breeze from the sea. If we had been in Australia, it would've been a small shack selling defrosted meat pies. Instead, we each ordered a big bowl of Kitsune Udon (Udon with fried bean curd) and a large bottle of beer. The udon is named after the fox (Kitsune) because according to the legends, they love deep fried tofu. Is that not just the cutest thing?

Biggest Kitsune Udon ever

Tom, Masa, Will the Botanist

After picking up some food at the supermarket, we drove along the coast and came to a flat grassy spot by the water. Masa had prepared all the camping necessities and much more. He brought a table, a grill, a cooler, a campfire, water boiler, and all these other crazy gadgets. It was luxury camping that my mother would be proud of.

Tonbi (kite)

Photo taken by Will the Botanist

Fierce looking wild cat

Sakura Mochi (Cherry Blossom rice ball)

What a life it would be if every night I could sit with great people, drinking, smoking, and grilling fresh fish. A couple meters away the waves crashed against the rocks, becoming mightier and mightier as the stars became brighter and brighter.