Japan Return Blog. Friday 10th February A lot can be achieved on zero sleep!

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1 Japan Return Blog Friday 10th February A lot can be achieved on zero sleep! We landed about 25 minutes ahead of schedule at 08:50 at Kansai International Airport from Kuala Lumpur, and as the whole immigration process is so smooth and refined, and the luggage came through quickly, we were on the train by 10 am, having changed into all the layers we could muster. There were snow flurries in the air and it was bitterly cold with a strong wind, so the chill factor was quite something for our Bali bodies. Of course John had already worked out the trains, and we changed once we had hit the mainland from the causeway onto a train going towards Wakayama along the coast to the South East. By express it was only 15 minutes to Ozaki Station, from where we needed to walk to find the minshuku. We had hoped for a coffee shop or somewhere to stop and regroup, but it was an incredibly quiet neighbourhood, with no shops open, so we battled forth, and it took us about half an hour wandering the old lanes between traditional houses and all the way to the sea - it looks out over Shikoku, but the wind was a huge factor in not being able to appreciate the view. We found two very helpful ladies who knew where the minshuku was and pointed us in the right direction.

2 The landlady was relatively young, and a bit nervous about her English, but John reassured her that we understood the system, and once the husband and dog arrived all was well. The dog would sit for 'suwate!', but not of course for our 'sit!' We left our bags in our tatami room, and received the parcel from Misa, which she had sent by takkyubin, so we have the few presents we had bought in Kyoto. We donned more layers, and set off for a day of exploration, which really turned out to be fun, never mind that we had been up all night and had dinner on the second plane at 2 am! We took the train from Ozaki to Wakayamashi at the end of the line. We were really surprised that although it is a big city it is so very, very quiet. We were actually looking for some lunch, but we couldn't find a restaurant or coffee shop anywhere. The streets were wide, and there seemed lots of business buildings, but no eating places! We made our way to the castle area, and eventually did find a wonderful old fashioned restaurant, which had traditional food served in beautiful lacquered obento boxes, with lots of green tea. We were very well looked after, and thoroughly enjoyed the meal apart from the fact it was smoky - it is quite a shock in this day and age to find places where people still smoke especially in restaurants or where anyone is eating food!

3 We wandered around the outside of the traditional castle on the mound, and had spotted a good place for a photo with the famous covered bridge over the moat and castle behind, but unfortunately there were pavement repairs going on. We next had a very charming Japanese experience when the 'health and safety' people guarding the roadworks came and fetched us, and between three of them led us through the middle of the 'dangerous' construction site to the spot for the photograph, and then lead us back to safety. It was wonderful if a bit surreal!

4 We made our way back to the station and took a local train down a branch to the coast at a small place called Kada, which had an onsen and small port. We wandered amongst the old houses to the harbour, and then round to the most amazing shrine. It is called the Awashima Jinja Shrine, and it was a total shock as it was full of Japanese dolls. Apparently it has an annual ritual where the dolls are sent out to sea in boats, but for now they were everywhere, and in other places there were stacks of tanuki (badgers), or daruma (round paper mache faces) or frogs, foxes, and other Japanese traditional icons. It was so unexpected, we really enjoyed it, right on the edge of the sea (but the wind was still bitter). We wound our way back to the station with lots of black kites shrieking and swooping around. We arrived back in Wakayamashi in time to do a little shopping for breakfast before heading to an Izekaya restaurant we had spotted which opened at 5 pm! Here we had a good selection of favourite dishes plus a pickled raw mackerel in 'ponzu' sauce which we hope to replicate when Wayne next has butterflied mackerel on a Wednesday! We took the train back to Ozaki, and 'boy was it bitterly cold?' walking back from the station into the wind in the dark. Yuki had put the heater on in our room, so it was warm to get under the futon (duvet) as soon as we had a shower. We were early to sleep after a wonderful day back in Japan. Saturday 11th February Local Explorations - we would probably enjoy doing this anywhere in Japan! We were refreshed after a long sleep and went down to make our breakfast and to chat with Yuki, Shige and Kotaro the dog. We had bought a little German bread and a tomato which we ate with marmite and coffee! As a result

5 of a long chat (Yuki has no English, but Shige has a little and John's Japanese is pretty good). John, Shige and I took Kotaro for a long walk in both directions along the coast. We saw where the Wakame seaweed is gathered, and where the spring water comes up in the Inari shrine, then we walked in the other direction to Nishi Tottori where the port is and they usually have kaki (oysters) for sale, but because of the windy weather the boats could not go out. Today is a National Holiday so they had a fun activity at the port where people were making their own nori (crisp pressed sheets of seaweed) and putting it up to dry, for collection in 2 days' time. I'm sure we would have had a go if we weren't leaving tomorrow but maybe we can try to do same thing with some Sutton-on-Sea seaweed - perhaps from Boy Grift?!

6 We had a coffee back at the minshuku before setting off on today's adventure. John had spotted another branch line heading for the small port of Tanagawa a little west of here. It was a wonder that the train still runs as so few people were on it, and when we got to the end we had about 3 kms to walk down to the port. There was truly nothing open, and no place to even stop for food or drink, so we just walked all the way back to the station and caught a train back to the junction and to Ozawa. At Ozawa station we had spotted a traditional Japanese Chinese-style restaurant. By now it was 2 pm and we were hungry, so we had a set meal

7 which included Gyoza (fried dumplings) and a sort of omlette on rice with a sauce - it may not sound great, but it tasted good! The weather was again bitterly cold, so I had my green cagoule on the outside as a shell, but it stayed dry and sometimes sunny. After lunch we headed to the local supermarket which was huge and had clothes as well as food. We did a good reconnoiter, and then went through our shopping list of Japanese food items we use and cannot get in Sutton-on-Sea. It was fun trying to identify the things we would like. We recovered by going to the coffee shop and watching tiny fish swimming around in a glass bowl!

8 Late afternoon on our way back to the minshuku, we went to the famous Naniwa sake Brewery in the village, which even supplies Selfridges in the UK. We were invited in to sample three different types of sake, which given the weather was very welcome and we bought a small bottle of the good stuff (our luggage couldn't take a big 1.5l bottle). We wended our way back to the minshuku through some really traditional houses and streets paralleling the sea wall, and arrived back around 5 pm. The main object then was packing all our purchases into the backpacks ready for tomorrow's departure.

9 Tonight we are invited to eat nabe with Yuki, Shige and some Japanese guests who are also staying. We were invited to join Shige and Yuki and two of their Japanese guests for Nabe cooked by Shige, so the evening was quite convivial. It turned out that Yuki wa actually Chinese from Sichuan province, which we know. She has been in Japan for 20 years, it it might explain her complete lack of English, knowing that although many Japanese do not speak it, having studied it for many years they have a basic understanding. Sunday 12th February KLM does it again! Overnight our flight had been delayed, so we will not now make the connection to Humberside! We had an inkling this might happen as when we arrived on Friday at the airport KLM was announcing a delay of that day's flight, too! Yuki (or Yumi?) gave us a lift to the station which was kind and we made all the connections to the airport. It was just incredibly busy, but as usual the Japanese had got the crowd control well organised, and we got a voucher for a free coffee because of our delay!! John will be booking us a taxi from Humberside as we now do not arrive until 9:35pm, with lots of time at Schiphol airport again. It will feel good to get to home sweet home. (Some might think that my sole reason for booking a minshuku on the Nankai railway line was so I could photograph their weird emu airport express train. Of course, this would be totally false and the minshuku was booked only because it was convenient for public transport to the airport!)

10 So, KLM permitting, we hope that that is the end of our blog. We plan perhaps one more 'highlights, lowlights and thank yous' after it is over. Stephanie & John