Day 6-7: From Seaside to rural Japan to the city

On the morning of our last day on the road, we saw a tree covered with caterpillars. Masa shuddered and walked away while the rest of us took five steps closer. These little guys had been finding their way to our tents and we often saw them crawling on our shirts. We packed our stuff, took a morning hike up the hill and then started our drive away from Shibukawa Seaside.

In the Bikan district in Kurashiki, we stopped to check out some 17th century wooden warehouses. The wood used to build the warehouses were often burned to create this dark sooty exterior. My hands turned black after I ran them along the walls.

There seems to be a job for everyone in Japan. This man was hired to tell people to beware of the electrical cords going across the footpath. In Vancouver, we'd probably just get an orange cone.

Sake!

Last year, Will the Botanist had done a Help Exchange in a small rural town in the Hyogo prefecture called Fukuura. He had stayed with an American couple, Mark and Carol, and Carol's mom, Ayako. The couple had decided to move to rural Japan and buy their house for only 20,000USD! In Japan, rural homes get auctioned at low prices because everyone's moving to bigger cities but the buyers aren't actually allowed to inspect the house. They only got a couple of photos. Their home was absolutely beautiful. We slept on a big comfy bed in a room with a sliding door. The stairs leading to the room upstairs were narrow and steep.

 The very next day we borrowed two bikes and took a ride around the neighbourhood.

Our stay with Carol and Mark was way too short. They dropped us off at the train station and we hurried off after a photo to buy our tickets to Osaka.

Once we arrived in Osaka, we went straight to a park in the city centre where one of Will the Botanist's friends had organized a picnic. The place was beside a rose garden that was in full bloom.

A couple of hours later, after we had our fill of convenience store snacks, we were on the go again. We took the train at Osaka station and got to Kyoto station at around 8pm. Masa picked us up and took us to Kaitenzushi, sushi served on a conveyor belt. We watched Masa's stack of plates rise higher and higher as we took our time selecting. When we went up to pay, he refused our money. We shoved our money at him again and he waved it off and said, "Welcome to Kyoto".

I've learned it's pretty hard to refuse a Japanese person's generosity.

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.

Lake Cobbler / I'm no longer a bum

I meant to make this post over a month ago but we all know how terrible I am on giving updates. Just had to say a blurb because my papa checks my blog once in a while to make sure I'm alive ;) These photos were from a weekend camping trip at Lake Cobbler in the Alpine National Park. 

More importantly, I wanted to say that finally have my own room after five months of bumming around. Write me a letter and I'll respond. Would love to hear from you peeps.

Princess Fiona

244 Albert Street
Brunswick, Victoria, Australia

3056

Toodles!