Weather: sunny and humid 15°C, high 27°C
Accommodation: Ryoso Kawaguchi.
We stayed in bed late, then didn’t leave the ryokan until almost 10! Very late for us while on a trip. We had coffee at the local coffee shop, then wandered to the otorri thinking we’d go through the shrine before it got busy. On the way we passed Eskil’s favourite minish lions.
It was a Sunday, and there were a lot of day trippers drawing and painting.
However it was low tide, so we decided to walk across as Eskil had wanted to walk across since he’d first seen the stepping stones that get covered by water. Eskil loved it and ran and jumped across.
Once we were across we wound up exploring on the other side, finding a swing and just checking out the area.
Eventually we came to the aquarium, so we decided to go in. Eskil LOVED it! He patted a PENGUIN, stood under a sea lion, and watched seals perform.
We had lunch there (it was nice not being bucked by a deer), then went back to the ryokan for Eskil to have a poo in his nappy and take a nap. I went to the top floor lounge to update my journal; the view’s not bad!
Just when I went downstairs to get my wallet to get coffee for me and yogurt for the boy, Scott and Eskil woke up. So Scott and Eskil went upstairs, I ran errands, and I came back with coffee for Scott and I. After coffee we went to the shrine right above our ryokan, the hall of 1,000 tatami mats, near the 5 story pagoda. As it was almost time for it to close we decided to leave it for the next day, so I found a geocache then we checked out the main shrine.
It was busy, so we went to a shop we’d seen selling wind chimes. Closed. Drat. Shops really do close once all the day trippers are gone. Walking back towards town, the big shrine had no queue, so we went through. It’s very beautiful – all over water (when it isn’t low tide).
We walked around just enjoying wandering.
I found another geocache, near the sunset viewing spot, then we had a fantastic dinner at a much nicer pub than the night before.
We had beer and lots of different skewers of deep fried food. So healthy! We had another nice Japanese family bath back at the ryokan, with Eskil looking like a bright red koi. We wrapped the towel around him well so he couldn’t escape it on the way back to our room! It’s hard to photograph with all the steam!
We checked out the night time view from the lounge.
More photos can be viewed at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cragg-ohlsson/archives/date-taken/2015/10/04/.