Catching a river ferry is a great way to get to & from the centre of Brisbane, my hometown. It`s fast, comfortable & scenic. It`s not so cheap, but actually everything is a little expensive in Australia nowadays.
We stayed with my parents while we were in Brisbane, and fortunately near their house there is a ferry stop. You can see it in the bottom-right photo. It`s a nice one, isn`t it? But I`m kind of disappointed that it doesn`t have a flag-pole & flag on top - that would really look good I think. Maybe I will write a letter & make a formal request for one to be put up.
Hmm. When I was young I would have thought about stealing such a flag. Now I`d like to donate one.
I must be getting old.
While doing Shikoku henro, we spent one night in a small town called Kuma. There was a small art gallery there, which we had just enough time to visit. Unfortunately they were holding an exhibition of strange modern photography instead of their usual collection, so I could only see it on their postcards... This is one I bought.
If you visit Kuma, I recommend visiting the Kuma Museum of Art. The curator is very nice, and if you ask (as my father-in-law did while I wasn`t looking), she`ll even book you a room for the night in town! What a kind lady.
We spent the night in a town called Imabari, woke up early the next morning, and headed off to temple number 54. We arrived well before opening time - 8am - but the priest kindly opened early and stamped my father-in-law`s book. Temples 54 - 59 were quite close, and only one was a little up a mountain, so we managed to visit them all before noon. Another reason we could visit them quickly was that, unlike usual, we didn`t get lost along the way. Getting lost is frustrating, but also kind of interesting I think, if you`re not in a hurry to get somewhere.
Anyway, we caught the train about midday & headed back to Ichinomiya. Along the way, the train followed the north coast of Shikoku Island for a while - the view was great. I felt happy & satisfied.
I`m looking forward to returning to Shikoku to complete my `henro`, maybe next year.
In some of my photos you can see people wearing white clothes & conical (= cone shape) hats. This is the traditional dress for pilgrims [gyouja]. Because I was cycling, I didn`t wear them, & I couldn`t carry a walking staff [kongoutsue] either. That`s kind of a shame, because they`re very ornate & colorful, & I`d quite like to have one. Maybe next time I`ll buy one as a souvenir.
Actually, most henro pilgrims don`t use their staffs for walking - I often see groups arrive by bus or mini-van, & just before they get off the bus, they get their staffs & conical hats, then they walk from the carpark into the temple. Nowadays not many people do the full henro on foot (it takes one or two months to complete).
While trying to find out how high henro temple number 45 (Iwaya-ji) was, I found this interesting GPS graph. It was posted online by someone who cycled the same route. I think the beginning point is Matsuyama, & the final point is Iwaya-ji.
I feel tired just looking at it.
Day 2 was the toughest day of our trip - we had to climb a big mountain. Sometimes we rode, sometimes we walked, and sometimes I just sat down by the side of the road, ate a mandarin [mikan] (Ehime prefecture is famous for mandarins) and cried for a while. It was hard work.
But coming down the other side was fun.
As you can see, the leaves have started changing colour in some places.
We were on Shikoku for four days altogether. These are some photos from the first day. If you have any questions, please ask me in Comments. For example:
- What kind of flowers are those in the second picture? A: They`re cosmos.
- What kind of crab is that? A: Sorry, I don`t know. I saw a few of them on one mountain road we were on.
- How big was it? A: About 7cm across.
- Did you pick it up? A: Yes.
- Did you keep it? A: No.
- Did you cook it & eat it? A: No!
Click on the picture to enlarge.
I`ve never really been into caves* but travelling near Gujo recently, my friend wanted to visit Otaki Shonyudo cave, so we went & took a look.
It was very cool inside, so it was a nice relief from the heat outside. However, it was quite long & narrow, & there were a lot of people, walking very slowly, so it took a long time to go through.
I don`t suffer from claustrophobia [heishokyoufushou], but I was kind of glad to get outside again. I`d hate to be in a cave during an earthquake, or heavy rain, or a blackout [teiden], or if my kids needed the toilet...
Fortunately these things didn`t happen!
*that`s a joke - did you get it?
Do you know the all-night dancing festival in Gujo? I`ve been to it a few times, but not recently. This year my wife`s sister really wanted to go, so we all went together. However, my wife`s sister had to work late, so we didn`t leave Ichinomiya until 1am, arriving in Gujo about 2am.
I thought it was too late, but I noticed lots of other people arriving at that time too. As usual for this festival, most people were wearing yukatas [summer kimonos].
We danced (when it wasn`t raining) until 4am, then drove home. We were wet & sleepy, but satisfied.
On Monday we went to Laguna Water Park in Gamagori. I thought it would only take one, maybe one & a half hours to drive there, but because of some bad traffic it took more than two hours. That`s pretty tough, especially with two restless kids in the back, an annoying Anpanman CD on auto-repeat, the car navigation system giving strange instructions, & the sun getting hotter & hotter... Oh...
Fortunately my wife was driving. I slept the whole way.
Laguna has various kinds of pool. We spent most of the time at the pool with the pirate ship. There are also various rides [norimono], but we didn`t go on any.
Afterwards we looked around the shopping centre across the road, & had dinner at a restaurant there called Washaganchi. Not only was the food very good, it also had a nice view of the marina. A great way to end the day!
This is their webpage:
http://www.laguna-gamagori.co.jp/index.html
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