Despite the forecast

It did drizzle most of the day, but we still got to see the island scenery thanks to our friend Hanae. We drove around the south of the island, visited a lighthouse, drove some more, saw the island's traditional weaving, had lunch, went to an onsen, saw some old thatched houses and were treated to tea, freshly roasted sweet potatoes and mochi, saw and were persuaded to try some taiko drumming, went around the local history museum and then made our own glass beads! And had a fantastic dinner and a great time hanging out with Hanae and her family.

Lookout

Gecko! We found several small ones in and around the hotel.

Long long ago

Found during a futile search for restaurants last night. No idea how long this has been here...

All view

A ten minute walk from the hotel, a very volcanic seaside. It's a very, very sparsely populated place...

Welcoming committee

Arrived safely in Hachijojima, so far almost Okinawa-style vibes although the weather is supposed to turn tomorrow. Can't complain as it's been amazing so far.

Working girl

Air stewardess Kitty at Haneda airport.

Boo to you too

Exceedingly cute "ghost bread" that was white on the outside but chocolate with chocolate cream filling on the inside.

Om nom nom

Amazing chicken and coconut curry and whole breaded mackerel at Wander Kitchen in Kamakura!

Go big

At the giant statue of Buddha in Hase.

Out of the ordinary

Galettes bretonnes on Enoshima. Fun, but couldn't be compared to Brittany...

Surprise!

Cherry blossoms in October!

Seize the day

Another early start today to head out to Enoshima. I have been here before at sunset, so interesting to see it all again in daylight.

Surfing the sunset

Sunset at the beach in Kamakura, complete with surfers.

First time for everything

Delicious matcha latte and houjicha ice cream at a cafe over a tenugui and tea shop in Kamakura.

Harvest

An autumn specialities box with sweet potato, chestnut, gingko nut, lotus root and lots of mushrooms.

On the rails again

Another long train journey, this time from Sendai south via Tokyo to Kamakura, another bento!

Choo choo

And another Kittfied icon, the inexplicably popular Shinkansen diagnostics train "Doctor Yellow".

You may be lucky he's not around now

Date Masamune, legendary local warlord, possibly a bit too iconic for his own good.

C'mon...

David watching taiyaki being made at a little shop on the way from Sendai station to our hotel. He had a green tea and red bean one, and I had a wonderfully savoury pumpkin one, both literally hot off the press.

Open sesame

Insanely good black sesame paste mochi from the flying dango shop at Genbikei gorge.

Fishy fishy fishy

Dinner last night at a kaiten sushi restaurant, including delicious prawn tempura nigiri and very rare roast beef!

Maybe not

"Learn English with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!"

If you've ever seen or read the series, you'll appreciate that this may not be the best approach to learning a language for everyday use.

Mind you, as I initially tried to teach myself Japanese from Dragon Ball (my advice: don't) and one of the first four-character compounds I learned was "self-destruct mechanism" I'm really not in a position to say much.

Evolution?

Not just a rice ball, a sandwich rice ball with spicy chicken. Not seen this one before.

One for the road

Long wait at Ichinoseki station for the next Shinkansen (that we can get with the pass), so we dived into a bakery and found another Halloween special - pumpkin and cream cheese bread! David had a tea and cheese bread that actually tasted like tea.

Triple treat

A very nice light red bean paste, black sesame, and sweet soy sauce, with the most delicious dango we've ever had. And then we were invited upstairs to see the launch site and meet the utterly charming and completely eccentric owner!

Away!

The famous "flying dango" of Genbikei gorge.

And again

Second gorge of the day, the confusingly similar Genbikei. Rushing rapids and tour groups, but walk a little further and it's elderly ladies tending fields and elementary school kids fishing from the eroded rocks.

Into the valley of stillness

Another beautifully clear (but cold!) day where we used our rail passes to venture further north to Ichinoseki and on to the Geibikei gorge, where we had the most amazingly still and quiet trip up and down a section on a pole-driven boat. Just wonderful.

Don't let that stop you

Japan persevering with supercolliders despite earthquake risks.

Beware

This time, of gulls nicking your phone while you take photos from the deck.

Sea and sun

Another glorious autumn day for a boat trip around the pine-covered islands of Matsushima bay.

Spinning in his grave

While Sendai is indeed the home of Date Masamune, legendary warlord with one eye and a penchant for helmets with giant crescent moons, I'm not sure about the line of super-deformed JSDF characters.

As opposed to?

Not seen this one before. Also had Strong Zero.

Life is short, eat dessert first

Pumpkin pudding to round off a breakfast of convenience store sushi. We slept in...

Shinkansen kiss

Two Tohoku Shinkansen trains coupled at Sendai station. (I think an E5 and an E6 series.)

Slow progress

For the last four days I've mostly been stopping every few metres to exclaim "Look at that tree!"

You couldn't make it up

The positively magical view over the Nakase swamp.

Round and round

We spent today walking around some of the many small and large lakes and swamps in the Ura-Bandai area.

Red leaf and Bear bud

Amazing red leaves at the end of the Go-shiki-numa trail, and a local bus painted to look like a bear (can you see the ears?).

Not that green

I almost picked these up thinking they were instant green tea latte sticks, but they turned out to be made from edamame...

Five coloured ponds

At the gorgeous Go-shiki-numa (five coloured ponds) in Ura-Bandai. Beautiful bright day and fantastic red leaves around the coloured waters.

More than just refreshment

Not seen this before - I'm sure it warrants some variation of the "brings your ancestors back from the dead" joke but I can't think of anything.

Fire in the mountains

Fire station in Ura-Bandai.

If you insist

Cake time

We took a break from the rapidly clouding waterfront at Lake Chuzenji, tea and coffee and chocolate cake and Earl Grey tea cake. It got so overcast that you could barely see the other side of the lake, and we went for the bus... Only to find many other people with the same idea. We walked back a few stops and managed to get a seat on an incoming bus.

Back to Nikko and onwards to Ura-Bandai!

Lunch by the lake

We went into a fish restaurant on the bank of Lake Chuzenji, right in front of Futarasan Jinja. Amazing tiny tempura fish like Spanish boquerones! Absolutely delicious.

Had forgotten people can still smoke in restaurants here.

Valley of the sunbeam

It was chilly in the morning but warmed a cleared up a bit later. Lots of cheerful hikers with bear bells.

Don't see this very often

We were warned by several people about choke points on narrow mountain roads causing big delays going to Yumoto Onsen, so we were up painfully early to get the second bus out - thankfully we got a big locker at Nikko station to leave our cases before heading into the mountains.

Autumn in a cracker

A gift from my friend Mika, delicious rice crackers.

Really wild

Beware of bears.