After having a real great adventure tour guiding around Hamamatsu through their stay, the last day we had a few mishaps, but the ladies at least had a chance to see the real country side of Hamamatsu.
We have many times seen a sign around talking about
Akiha shrine, so when Ritsy suggested going there, I thought it sounded like a great idea. The thing is that there is actually 2 Akiha shrines, the upper one and the lower one. The GPS pulled us towards the lower one - which I would guess is the less popular one. Above is shown the view from the parking lot.
The temple area is as shown here, quite small but peaceful. They had a really large shovel, but neither of my two pictures worked out, so I can't show it here. The sign talked of walking to the other shrine, a 45 minute hike. When we asked a local lady, she said it was probably more like over an hour. So we got into our car and tried to find the second shrine, but instead we ended up on one of the scarier roads I have been on. Mostly a single lane road that has mirrors on every corner so that you can see any oncoming traffic (oh- ya check out my pick for website of the week- the world's scariest roads). Because of the rainy conditions and the sheer slope of the hills surrounding the road I had a feeling that a rock could pelt my car at any minute. Well eventually we made our way out to a more normal, safe feeling road.
We stopped for a little Chinese food at
Bamiyan then headed over to Flower Park in Kanzanji. The day was a bit rainy so I thought it might be a bit of a disaster, but the layout was quite lovely and the bulk of the interesting flowers were inside the greenhouse. I really learnt a lot of flower names, but I am already forgetting what each one looked like. That night we went to Sushiro for some
kaiten sushi which the ladies really seemed to enjoy.
The end had arrived, the next day was the day to return home. We couldn't get the pictures to turn out well, so the top one was the best we could do- after taking this picture we headed to Hamamatsu station for a final coffee all together.
Poor Ritsy had her head cut off in this picture. Unfortunately the Starbucks and other coffee shops nearby are always so packed, so we found this nice bake shop in the basement of the station. Next Ritsy said goodbye and I escorted the ladies across to Narita airport. They felt bad I wanted to come out with them to say goodbye, but it is much easier to find the way if you have a guide and I remember Ritsy doing the same for me when I visited one time before, it kind of feels nice to have the company. Well I showed them how to find the cheaper Shinkansen ticket machines, and all that good stuff. Finally we arrived, they checked in, we checked out the shopping mall at the airport and we said goodbye.
That closed a great time, at least for me and I am sure that they also enjoyed themselves. The trip home felt a little anti-climactic and I was really glad to be able to show the ladies around this country. It actually probably helped me to more appreciate the greatness and beauty of this country- kind of a chance to bond again with Japan. Well, the fun wasn't over yet, my friend Scott was making his way to Japan about a week later...
We have many times seen a sign around talking about Akiha shrine, so when Ritsy suggested going there, I thought it sounded like a great idea. The thing is that there is actually 2 Akiha shrines, the upper one and the lower one. The GPS pulled us towards the lower one - which I would guess is the less popular one. Above is shown the view from the parking lot.
The temple area is as shown here, quite small but peaceful. They had a really large shovel, but neither of my two pictures worked out, so I can't show it here. The sign talked of walking to the other shrine, a 45 minute hike. When we asked a local lady, she said it was probably more like over an hour. So we got into our car and tried to find the second shrine, but instead we ended up on one of the scarier roads I have been on. Mostly a single lane road that has mirrors on every corner so that you can see any oncoming traffic (oh- ya check out my pick for website of the week- the world's scariest roads). Because of the rainy conditions and the sheer slope of the hills surrounding the road I had a feeling that a rock could pelt my car at any minute. Well eventually we made our way out to a more normal, safe feeling road.
We stopped for a little Chinese food at Bamiyan then headed over to Flower Park in Kanzanji. The day was a bit rainy so I thought it might be a bit of a disaster, but the layout was quite lovely and the bulk of the interesting flowers were inside the greenhouse. I really learnt a lot of flower names, but I am already forgetting what each one looked like. That night we went to Sushiro for some kaiten sushi which the ladies really seemed to enjoy.
The end had arrived, the next day was the day to return home. We couldn't get the pictures to turn out well, so the top one was the best we could do- after taking this picture we headed to Hamamatsu station for a final coffee all together.
Poor Ritsy had her head cut off in this picture. Unfortunately the Starbucks and other coffee shops nearby are always so packed, so we found this nice bake shop in the basement of the station. Next Ritsy said goodbye and I escorted the ladies across to Narita airport. They felt bad I wanted to come out with them to say goodbye, but it is much easier to find the way if you have a guide and I remember Ritsy doing the same for me when I visited one time before, it kind of feels nice to have the company. Well I showed them how to find the cheaper Shinkansen ticket machines, and all that good stuff. Finally we arrived, they checked in, we checked out the shopping mall at the airport and we said goodbye.
That closed a great time, at least for me and I am sure that they also enjoyed themselves. The trip home felt a little anti-climactic and I was really glad to be able to show the ladies around this country. It actually probably helped me to more appreciate the greatness and beauty of this country- kind of a chance to bond again with Japan. Well, the fun wasn't over yet, my friend Scott was making his way to Japan about a week later...
1 comment:
Hi Todd -thanks for the story and photos! what an enjoyable vacation, with you two as excellent tour guides. I am loving sorting through my photos and will send you one about the Kaiten sushi. Found a Japanese grocery store in TO and am ready to make chirashi with the rice, beef, eggs, carrots, sweet vinegar, cooking saki etc.
Be well and happy!
Liz
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