Wow, another jam-packed weekend! I feel I have taken more photos this weekend than in my time in Japan! After a surprisingly comfortable, yet delayed, bus trip and train ride, I finally arrived in Fukuchiyama to meet Erika. Erika lives on the borderline of Fukuchiyama and Maizuru city, in amongst numerous mountains and greenery. It was so beautiful driving to her home – again, photos just wouldn’t do this place justice!
This was my first time meeting Erika’s family – her mother, father and grandma live in a shared home. They were so welcoming and excited to have me as a visitor – I really felt at home!
On Sunday, Erika and her friend, Mika, took me to Amanohashidate (to break it down amano-hashi-date). This is known as one of the three most beautiful views of Japan. And the view did not disappoint! After taking a chair lift to the top, you could see a beautiful stretch of sea, divided by an ever-so-green island. It was magnificent.
From here, it is said that if you look upside down the island makes a dragon-shape that reaches toward the sky (the heavens). It symbolises power and strength. I couldn’t make it out, but maybe some of you can? Haha!!
We then had lunch overlooking this view. I ordered what I thought was tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets) with curry and rice. However, upon receiving my meal I soon realized it was clam! It didn’t taste too bad for my first ever clam-experience. That was until I spent the next three hours hunched over the restaurant’s toilet bowl!
I can’t say it was a pleasant three hours. It seemed that I had received an extremely bad dose of food poisoning from the clams. I couldn’t blame the restaurant as they were under immense pressure with the amount of customers arriving for the holiday period. Erika and Mika had also eaten clam in each of their meals too. Nevertheless, I felt absolutely awful for both Erika and Mika, as I had managed to ruin their sight seeing and dinner plans.
Once I was able to travel back down the chair lift, we journeyed home, where I went straight for a nap. Can’t say I did much more for the remainder of the day! But I did manage to regain some colour back in my face later that night.
The next day, Erika and I decided to skip-out on Kyoto (with it being extremely busy during the holiday period) and instead spent more time sight seeing in Maizuru city. We first visited the naval port, filled with great ships for the Japanese defense force. If you actually think back to World War II, this was the original site the Americans were planning to drop the atomic bomb.
We then went to the nearby red brick (called aka-renga in Japanese) museum. The colouring is stunning, and is truly representative of the preserved history in Japan.
Next, we were off to get some awesome and Italian gelato – I was so glad to have my appetite back to try this!! Chocolate hazelnut is my new favourite :P
Our last stop was at the top of the Goro Sky Tower. It presented a view that could rival that of yesterday’s. It was truly magical!
We then began the long journey towards Kyoto, and eventually home. It was so sad to say goodbye yesterday, but I know I will be back to visit soon enough!! Erika’s family feels like a second family here already :D
On a side note, Japan continues to amaze me with wonderous gadgets. Including this moving bridge. I’m not sure why I found it so amazing, but you definitely don’t see this everyday in Australia!
And it’s sadly back to work today. I apologise for it taking so long to get these last blog posts up and published! Hopefully the next one will be up sooner!!
Until then, please try and use the Facebook comment application – someone needs to be the guinea pig!
