June 15-17 (Sat-Mon) - I didn't jump off Tojinbo

Saturday: I played with little kids. Then the troublesome kid was missing from class so I had fun and played with older little kids. 

Then I ate this thing from a conbini:

If it looks gross, that’s because it was. But no worries, I followed it up with a lovely strawberry smoothie thing then a cup of coffee because I felt like it was bedtime.

Then I cleared 15gb of stuff off my computer. Thank you MacPaw Gemini.

Sunday: Kaori and I went running, ate lunch, then went to a social dance party thing. There was kind of a performance and kind of a lesson but mostly we chatted with people and attempted to dance. Others were very kind and helped us multiple times through the steps (the music changed too fast through the types of dances). 

After this, we relaxed. Phew.

Monday: The plan was to get some work done and maybe write some stuff but that didn’t happen. After tkd I talked with family (Happy Father’s Day), planned lessons, then at 2:00 I set off on a grand adventure. My original goal was just to go to Tojinbo, but when I saw it required passing through Fukui anyway, I thought well, might as well check out some stuff in Fukui.

I discovered Fukui castle is dominated by business buildings, I couldn’t see any parking for the ruins (wherever they were); once I found Yokokan Garden I had to circle it three times to find the parking, then figured maybe next time, now that I knew where it was. I hadn’t yet driven through central Fukui city so that was an adventure. Like most cities. 

However, after this failure, I set my Google Map to Tojinbo — then saw a sign for Daianzenji Temple and figured I should visit that. I liked the drive, and I was a pretty place. First there was a flower garden, with ajisai (hydrangea)

and ayame (iris);

then a huge graveyard with some famous people (the Matsudaira)

surrounded by a forest with bamboo — look how thick this is (and hollow)

then the temple itself (no pictures allowed).

But here is the bell.

And what is this tree? I want one.

The other people visiting there were very friendly. I think they were all surprised to see a foreigner there. I met one group of 3 people several times as we went different ways around the complex.

I spent about an hour there, then — Finally! I went to—

Well, on the way to Tojinbo, I happened to see the sign for Mizuni Beach so I pulled off and went down to the water. It is a real beach. Meaning, there is sand. I think it’s man-made (note the tractor treads).

Then! At long last, I drove to Tojinbo. It was completely deserted so I couldn’t be sure I was in the right spot, but there were a few people at the waterside so I figured this must be the main attraction. The cliffs were smaller than I’d thought, but still pretty neat. 

They’d be neater if they weren’t infested with gokiburi. 

The sunset was beautiful, however, so I sat for a while and ate snacks.

After this, it was time to go home. Well, except, you know, I wanted to investigate the seaside the other way, to see if I could get a better view of the island (Oshima)... 

I made it, and walked across the pretty bridge to the island. 

The island is probably very interesting to like geologists or biologists or whatever. But the pathways were overgrown (after all, nobody is touring I guess), and, after all, it’s haunted.

By gokiburi, anyway.

Luckily, these creepy-crawlies aren’t brave, and as long as I tromped about with enough noise they scattered before my arrival. There were no incidents. I was not however brave enough to trudge through the thick growth to the water and made my circuit around the island more of a triangle.

Look, I’ve been there.

After this, tired and hungry and tired of climbing stairs, I headed home. It was a little nerve-wracking as first my phone gave a low-battery alarm (I need you, Google Maps — at least until Route 8), then I couldn’t find a single gas station on the left-hand side of Route 8, until my dial was in the middle of the last tick and I finally found one, then my portable speaker battery died and I tried to get the car one to work, but at long last I arrived home around 8, took a cold shower, ate dinner, thanked Mom for chocolate, thanked my sisters for tea, then slept at long last. Who needs plans anyway.

Recent Japanese:
anago (穴子) = garden/conger eel
saba (鯖) = mackerel (Sabae no saba)
enjiru (演じる)= to perform
yakuyoke (厄除)= warding off evil
kaiun (開運) = better fortune
satsuei = photography (satsuei kinshi 撮影禁止 — no photography)