Crowned Crane, which is the national bird of Uganda. Just a bit of trivia for you.
Today was certainly a day that if we were ever going to get IDO syndrome, it would be today.
IDO stands for “Internally Displaced Organs Syndrome”, otherwise known as getting a Kenyan massage. Seriously, the roads in Kenya are really bad.
Though bits and pieces remind me of Australia. Remember the hills that ring Alice Springs? This reminded me of them, though they’ve had more rain.
The rest of the photos on this post are taken from the jeep’s window. We were driving like the fast and the furious today. We had a lot of k’s between us and our accommodation in Tanzania.
Everywhere we went, there were small boys looking after livestock by the side of the road. One photo I missed was a boy with his herd, looking at his phone.
This is my last Kenyan photo. Our jeep paused to turn into the border crossing and these boys waved.
Tanzania now.
I love this one.
Women getting firewood. Our driver said that they can walk as much as 10 miles a day to find enough.
This is one of my favourites for the day.
Kids everywhere call out and wave as the jeeps go by. Usually, I’m too busy waving back to snap a photo, but I got this little guy.
I don’t think he’s wearing a seatbelt.
We kept seeing these houses with really steep roofs. Our driver explained that they’d seen movies from colder climates where the houses had these roofs because of snow etc, and they’ve now become a status symbol.
We passed by one place with an impossibly steep roof. “Look at that,” he chuckled. “ He could have built another house instead of that roof!”
There are so many 3 wheeled cars in Tanzania. These guys were kind enough to pose for me.
This looks like hard work.
Kids playing with tyres, just like in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
And finally, if you zoom in on the ends of the branches, you’ll see Weaver bird nests. The males build the ests. If a male doesn’t do a good enough job, a female will destroy it. and make him do it again. Once she’s happy with the nest then she’ll breed with him. Fair enough, too. 😀
I was going to have a balloon ride over the South African countryside when my sister Kate and I were there 11 years ago. Unfortunately, the weather stopped it happening. We were disappointed, but today was the day I’d get that job done.
My first hot air balloon ride and it just happens to be over the Masai Mara.
Here are the lions we saw yesterday. Most of the pride had moved off, as there were buffaloes and warthogs nearby, but a couple of lionesses and some cubs were still there. Zero in and you can see them.
I’ve never been able to drive binoculars very successfully, so this is the view of the elephant herd I saw. Zoom. In, and you’ll be able to see them. They have babies…
Here’s a wonderful silhouette. The balloon pilot was trying to go left, but the wind was pushing us to the right.
”You don’t take up ballooning if you need to be in control of everything,” he said. “You can control the actual balloon, but with everything else you have to be adaptable.”
It was nice up there. You could see for miles, of course, and the sky was changing colours every second.
The wind blew us over the river. “The guys have to find a way to cross to pick us up,” he said. “ It’s almost at the hour now, but we can’t fly for a bit longer.” We had no problem with that.
We were heading straight for a tree with a vulture perched on it.
”I’ll fly over this,”he said, giving the balloon a bit of a kick of flame. “It’s a waste of energy for him to fly if there’s no need.”
After an al fresco champagne breakfast – don’t mind if I do – we headed back out for a game drive.
Almost immediately we were face to face with three of these.
We were so close, we could hear him chewing.
After a while, we left them to it and drove off to see what else was out there.
We couldn’t believe how close this hyena was to the road. He wasn’t moving for anyone!
Can you BELIEVE this?
A pride of lions with a fresh kill. When we were up in the balloon we saw some lions chasing a warthog. The balloonist said they were just mucking around, but maybe things turned serious.
Do you notice how the boys are eating first. The girls do the hunting, but the boys eat their fill first.
This was sad. The baby Cape Buffalo still has the umbilical cord. We all assumed it was with its mother, but then Martin said, “ These are male buffalo. They’re trying to make the baby go away.”
One of the two very stupid women we have on the tour said, “Oh, surely they’ll take it to a mummy who’s lost her baby.”
”No, no,” said Martin. “They don’t adopt other babies. This one will almost certainly die.”
Hooley Dooley, it was a good day for lions!
Look at her swinging that snack around!
After a little while, they walked off through all the parked jeeps to find some shade from the afternoon sun.
I have heaps of photos of this guy, but I couldn’t resist showing you the video. I always try to be in front of, and at this moment I was very glad I was.
Another jackal. I think they’re beautiful.
See?
Then we found another courting couple. Look away now if you don’t want to see the full extent of a lion’s bonk.
All 12 seconds of it.
A giraffe hung around for a while.
Then guess what? We drove up to a river bank and we were allowed to get out of the jeeps.
Hippos!
We could hear them grunting and bellowing as we stood on the bank. We stayed for quite a while, watching them disappear and reappear from the water. This day was EPIC. Then after lunch, we had a couple of hours to chill – and when I said a few swear words about the non-existent wifi – then we were off to a Masai village.
Here’s the famous jumping dance.
We were given a fire-making demonstration. I tell you what – these guys should go on Survivor. A handful of elephant dung, a knife and it was away, even on a windy day.
We were given a tour of the village. The guy who took our group was telling us how the women make the houses, bring up the kids, do the cooking and make crafts to sell, while the men protect the village and look after the livestock.
Janet, a woman on the tour who is distinguishing herself by her lack of filter, said to him, “That’d be right. The women do all the work while the men just laze around.”
omg.
Sylvana, the team leader, and I looked at each other, appalled. The man impassively looked at Janet for a couple of seconds, then invited us into the house. I saw Sylvana tap Janet on the shoulder and whisper something to her. Janet was well-behaved for the rest of the day.
The village was surrounded by a thick fence of thorn bushes to keep the animals out. It’s crazy… people are scared of Australia’s wildlife, but we don’t have things like lions and hippos that can rip you limb from limb.
Inside the fence, the village is built in a circle. The “village green”, if you will, is where they bring their cows and goats in at night for protection.
There are 350 people living here, which means that these huts must be packed. Polygamy is allowed here. The houses have a tiny window, presumably for safety if an animal does break in, so it was almost pitch black inside. I don’t know how the women are able to do their cooking.
These kids were mucking around with me, so I took their photo for them.
His kids.
After this, it was back to the game park for another drive. We only saw one main animal, apart from the usual zebras, gazelles and such.
But WHAT an animal.
A cheetah.
There was a documentary film crew following a cheetah around, and the other drivers had to hang back until they got their footage. Our driver was looking, looking, then he suddenly floored it when he heard something over the radio.
For ages, no one could see where he was, until Liz, who has eagle eyes, spotted him hiding behind a bush.
Rangers were there, and they allowed us to leave the road and slowly drive close to him.
Just stunning.
The Masai Mara park certainly delivered today! Tomorrow, we’re off to Tanzania.
Today was a long driving day, but with the promise of another Game drive in the Masai Mara game park.
In the morning, all I did was take photos of the people I saw along the way.
These little boys were outside the place we stopped for a morning coffee. I bought a painting of some Masai warriors here. We’re seeing a Masai village tomorrow, so they say.
So many donkeys! I love how donkeys look.
We eventually arrived, after jolting along the worst roads I’ve ever experienced. Our drivers have all said that Landcruisers are unbreakable, and they’d have to be.
We drove in and the magic began to happen.
So many zebras. Look at how brown this baby is.
A hyena, so close to the road.
Then our driver suddenly floored it. We rounded a few bends, hanging on for dear life as we stood, then we saw a big clump of jeeps.
It was a pride of lions, next to a kill that they’d made yesterday. The aroma was pretty rank, but who cared?
They were sated, sprawled out across the grass, uncaring that we were all so close. Occasionally, one would yawn, stretch out its legs and roll over.
A couple of lionesses and some cubs were still fooling around with the carcass.
I mean… are you kidding me? We could hear them breathing.
As we were there, word had spread over the short wave, and more jeeps pulled up.
I know I call myself Fortunate Frogdancer, and I’m obviously not deluding myself!
After a few minutes, we left so that other people could see them. The lions couldn’t have cared less. The sunset was beginning to appear.
Not five minutes later, we saw a small cat dart across the road and into the scrub. It was a Seville cat, and they mainly eat birds. It was so small compared to the lions.
I’m very proud of this shot. Everyone else in the jeep was stampeding over to get a copy.
Ostriches!
Thomson’s Gazelles were everywhere. Aren’t they beautiful?
And then, as if we weren’t spoiled enough, we came across this couple. They were on their honeymoon.
When lions hook up, they stay together for around a week, ignoring food and mating every 15 minutes. These two were exhausted, but they were still holding hands. After a minute or two we left them to it.
After all, dinner was waiting.
A silver backed jackal. It looks like it has a coat strapped around it.
What an amazing afternoon.
We have the whole day here tomorrow. Can’t wait to see what else we can see.
This morning was a driving day, where we headed into Lake Nakuru National Park. This place used to be known for its flamingos, but since the 90’s the lake has gotten bigger and now isn’t salty enough for much of the food that the flamingos prefer, so there are fewer of them.
Fruit, anyone?
We stopped along the way to take photos of the Great Rift Valley, where it all began…
The Lake Nakuru National Park is188 kms square and has an electric fence around the perimeter.
The only one of the Big Five that this park doesn’t have is the elephant.
It was heavily raining as soon as we got here at 12m, but I remained optimistic. Our first big game drive wasn’t until 4, so as far as I was concerned, it could rain all it liked until then.
The first animal we saw was the Cape Buffalo, one of the Big Five. “This animal hates humans with a passion,” said George, the driver of the jeep I was in. “You could bring a baby one home and keep it in your backyard, and when it gets big enough it will try to kill you.”
They didn’t seem very pleased to see us.
Then zebras! Lots of zebras.
”A passport shot!” said George. Their tails looked like someone had plaited them.
We discovered that there are many troupes of baboons here. The rain had stopped.
Hippo!
All of a sudden, George stopped the car, came in the back where we were and lifted the roof. As long as we took our shoes off, we could stand on the seats and have a clear view for photos.
Pelicans.
Pelicans do communal fishing in a clump and when one dives they all dive. If one doesn’t get a fish then one who has already eaten will give them their fish.
It was get later. We could hear monkeys calling, and George said that they were warning of a big cat prowling in the area.
Rhinos!
And then the most exciting thing of all… a lioness perched on top of a dead tree, with a lion directly below her.
We were thrilled. To be honest, after all the rain, I thought that the chances of seeing cats were pretty low. Yet here they were.
A Glossy Starling. Pretty, isn’t it?
And to round off the day, I SPOTTED these guys. Spotted hyenas.
Just before dinner, there was a cultural show at the lodge. It’s going to be an early start tomorrow…
It’s not often that two siblings are at the same airport at the same time, unless they’ve decided to travel together. Kate was flying to India and I was headed to Kenya, and our flights were 2 hours apart . We met at the pub near gate 12 for a celebratory drink. This was complicated by the fact that when we were both making our way to the airport, Dad was being admitted to hospital because he’s so weak. The man hasn’t eaten more than 3 consecutive bites of food since he broke his hip in January. (This is a slight exaggeration, but not by much.)
He’s definitely in the right place, with many more eyes being on his health. Our first night was fine. We went to a restaurant called ‘Carnivore’, which my roommate wasn’t rapt about, being a vegan.
I’m sharing a room with Annette, who is the sister of a guy I’ve known for 26 years. I told her to about this trip last year and she rang the company to book a place. They said that it was all booked out, “ but if Frogdancer shares a room with you, you can come…”
Well, what could I say? Besides, it saved me $1,800 from a solo booking. That pays for a balloon ride over the Serengeti, plus other travel bits and bobs.
5.5 million people live in Nairobi 10% of the population and there’s 1.5 million commuting and out of the city every day
Pedestrians far more than a home people coming up to the cars when we stopped to traffic line are begging or trying to sell stuff. We were warned to keep our phones between our knees if the windows were opened in the jeep because people have been known to reach through the open window and steal the phone. Imagine! That’d be the end of the holiday…
Traffic lights are here “just for suggestion” said our driver.
The first night was enlivened by Annette briefly playing with the radio beside her bed, which resulted in an alarm going off at 3AM. A Mexican mariachi band was suddenly playing very loudly in our room.
She was so embarrassed, but honestly, the music made it so funny. Africa it certainly wasn’t!
The sanctuary has only 5 permanent residents- 4 female and 1 male.
It’s a breeding sanctuary.
You place the pellets on the top of the tongue. If you get some spit on you, it’s all good. Giraffe spit is antibiotic.
Rothschild giraffes are endangered, so this is why they were chosen for this breeding program.
They move the babies back to the wild when they reach sexual maturity at 3 – 4 years to make way for the new babies.
Males fight to the death. So only Eddie is here.
Gestation period for giraffes is 15 to 18 months. They can hold back their deliveries for 3 months if the environmental conditions aren’t good. Dry season is preferred.
28 to 30 years in captivity.
24 they reach menopause.
25 years life expectancy in the wild.
Their leg bones have no marrow, so they’re very strong. This is their main defence. Their only predator is the big cats.
They sleep only 5 to 10 minutes per day.
Pumba means stupid in Swahili.
The two annimals are symbiotic. Giraffes have great vision, whereas warthogs don’t. Predators will prefer to kill warthogs rather than giraffes, so the giraffes use the stupidity of the warthogs to their advantage. Warthogs forget things after about 5 seconds.
We drove 20 minutes to reach the elephant sanctuary. This is a rescue service, with rangers bringing backpacks orphans to be raised to go back to the wild.
The baby elephants were introduced to us first, with them racing out to collect milk bottles from the keepers. One guy gave a running commentary about how each elephant baby came to be at the sanctuary.
Talon was with a herd of bull elephants who were looking after her which is quite unusual, as normally the females do it. She was rescued because obviously baby elephants need milk for at least two years so they weren’t sure how long she would survive with the boys.
One was surrounded by lions, so he definitely needed to be rescued! They use a helicopter to scout around and he was spotted. Most elephants are orphaned by direct human actions, such as ivory poaching, or by indirect human actions, such as falling down wells or mine shafts.
They are fed human baby formula because obviously it’s a bit hard to milk a wild elephant. One thing I really liked about this place was that they try very hard to keep the animals as detached from humans as possible. They rotate their shifts so that the elephants don’t get attached to any one person.
The baby elephants need to be fed every 3 hours around the clock, so they have a different keeper sleeping in the same room as them every night. Apart from the hour where they come to be admired by tourists, the rest of the time they’re out in the National Park, with keepers assigned to each group to keep them safe.
.
You another stupid question asked by a tourist after them explaining with great detail that they rotate the keepers so that the elephants don’t get attached to one human. Somebody else. If you sponsor an elephant can we feed them? And it’s like you are an idiot of course not though the guy answering the question was a lot more tactful than I would’ve been.
How incredible is this? I’m standing so close to these animals… though not so close that I couldn’t leap back if one suddenly started to pee.
Our next one stop was a women’s collective, where they make beads to sell. Most of them are single mothers.
We saw how the beads were made, from the raw clay right up to the finished product.
Henna hands!
We had a sumptuous lunch at the Karen Blixen restaurant, then it was off to the other side of town to visit an orphanage.
Look at what we saw on the street?
It’s not every day you see a camel in traffic.
Our second-last stop for the day was at an orphanage called The Children’s Garden Home.
200 kids live here.
In 2001 this guy and his wife started with 5 kids under a tree. It’s called The Children’s Garden because the kids are the plants who bloom.
Bigger kids watching the little kids play soccer. It’s expected that the older kids help bring up the younger ones.
The kids are pretty much found on the streets, or neighbours alert the people who run the place if they know f kids who have been abandoned.
This is the school library. Joyce handles all of the textbook, stationery and wide reading books from here for all of the children. In our jeep the next day, we regretted that we didn’t know more about this place before we left. We could have loaded up our suitcases with exercise books and pencils.
This little girl was very cute.
After a while, we were all herded into the hall and the kids performed for us. This was the last song they sang, before we were all grabbed by a child and danced with them all up on the stage.
Batman here was part of a posse of small boys who giggled and wriggled together. He was tickled to see himself on my phone.
These two photos are of Lynette, who was my guide around the place. She finished year 12 last year and hopes to study tourism.
Our last stop was to have dinner at a private house, which turned out to be the owner of the travel company, Twiga Travel, which we’re travelling with. Talk about a stark contrast!
Tomorrow, we travel into the countryside and have our first game drive.
Dad Joke of the Day:
Well, not really a joke this time. I just thought that this sounds like ME!
On Sunday, we gathered at Kate’s place for Dad’s 87th birthday. She made individual chocolate mousse pots insteadof a cake, because Dad was more likely to attempt to eat mousse. It was a lovely day.
Both Kate and I are flying out of the country today, me to Africa and she to India, so we’ve passed the baton of Mum and Dad’s care to our sister-in-law Liz, who is married to our brother. She’s devoutly hoping that nothing goes wrong in the 10 days Kate will be gone.
I’ll be flying into Kenya on Wednesday and spending a few days there before moving onto Tanzania and Zanzibar. I’m sticking with just taking carry-on, though I’ve invested in a new cabin bag after seeing a couple of Foldies on my Japan trip. I’m thinking of taking them both with me but keeping one folded up, just in case I buy something crazy while I’m over there. I won’t (much) mind checking in my carry-on suitcase if I’m on the way home, and it’ll give me options…
I’m also experimenting with how I’ve packed. This time around, I’m trying ‘bundling’ rather than rolling my clothes. We’ll see how well it works as I travel around. For the initial pack, I’ve been able to fit in more clothes than usual – and 2 pairs of shoes! Naturally, I’m bringing Deanna’s pink socks and Wanda the waterbottle with me.
Today was supposed to be a free day, while we waited for our flights back home. But our fights were all from 5 PM onwards, so that was a lot of free time to fill. A couple of the guys asked Ben if he could organise a bullet train ride for us to help fill in the time, He came back with an itinerary.
This was great for him (obviously) as we each paid $75, but it was also great for us, as we got to see things that we would not have seen otherwise, with the benefit of having transportation as well.
Ben has been a terrific guide.
We went 2 stops to Tokyo. It was so quiet and sleek.
I was sitting next to this girl who was very busily working on her nails.
It reminded me of the young mother with the jewellery on her teeth, remember?
Our next stop was to see the Lady Liberty statue. As we were waiting for people to finish their toilet stop, I saw this couple dancing to music from a boom box they’d brought. It was like something out of a movie.
Who needs to go to New York? I’ve seen her in Paris on the river Seine and now here in Tokyo.
Then we walked to see this robot.
“Your poses are very interesting….” said Ben.
More cherry blossom! I booked this trip a week before the cherry blossom season to save $600. Honestly, I don’t care about cherry blossom, but it’s nice to see it.
Our next stop was Chinatown, where we had a couple of hours to wander around, get lunch and get rid of any Japanese cash.
I bought a hat. It turns out that it fits perfectly in the top section of my bag, where I can slip my phone into it to protect it from getting scratched. Plus it’s there waiting, right on hand, if I get cold. This might come in handy for Africa next week.
A willow form of cherry blossom. So beautiful.
Goodbye Japan.
I wasn’t particularly drawn to you, but so many people told me I’d love you.
They were correct. My god, I’ll miss your toilets.
I’m half joking, but only people who’ve been to Japan will know what I mean.
Screenshot
I think I gave Japan a pretty good shake. Obviously, there are places up north I could go, but for now, I’m happy with the ground I covered with this tour.
And the ecstatic welcome from Miss Scout was wonderful.
She’s ging to be mightily pissed off when I bring the carryon out again on Tuesday for my Africa trip…
Today we only had one excursion, which was to a tea plantation. Here’s a view from the bus. Tea as far as the eye can see!
See the fans? They’re switched on whenever frost is expected, to protect the delicate new leaves from being ruined.
Another of Ben’s funny sayings: “ A tea ceremony is like a tea party in slow motion.”
Ben and the farmer standing among the tea plants. We’d ask questions, Ben would translate to the farmer and we’d get the translated answer back from Ben.
Here’s some of what I managed to glean: 4 harvests per year.
Small leaves grow on the tops of the plants after they’re cut, then 1 month later they’re ready for harvest.
The plants are 30 years old. They grow a maximum of 50 years before they’re replaced.
Cut by two people like a hedge trimmer.
3 lines of te plants = 5 kgs of harvested leaves.
Matcha is made from bushes covered with a black tent to keep it from sunshine. It takes a long time, so it’s more expensive. This makes it taste like umami.
Rainfall is enough to irrigate.
They stop spraying for insects two weeks before the harvest.
7 years before new plants are ready to harvest.
Harvest to finished product takes only 2 days.
Green tea is the number one drink in Japan.
I bought matcha powder, green tea lollies and a panel of material with a cross samurai printed on it.
Then we drove to a petrol stop, where I had lunch with these two cuties, and was reunited with an old friend…
I had lunch looking at the south side of Mt Fuji.
Afterwords, I stood at a fence and waited for 15 minutes for the clouds to move away.
Nearly…
Finally, I realised that this was the closest I was going to get. Isn’t she utterly beautiful?
As we were leaving, Ben said, “I can’t believe it. Most trips we see the two sides of the Fuji and both are covered in clouds. You get to see the Fuji on a clear day… twice!”
”It’s because you have Fortunate Frogdancer on the bus!” I said.
When we got to the hotel, I went clothes shopping for an outfit to wear to my ex brother-in-law’s funeral on Friday. I bought a dress first, then thought to google what the weather will be in Melbourne that day. 26C and sunny. The dress I bought is more for winter wear.
So I bought this outfit, then once I got back to my room I spent half an hour working out how to fit 3 more articles of clothes, plus all my matcha stuff, into my carryon suitcase along with everything else.
I think I’ll be able to zip it closed for my flight home tomorrow night.
I really don’t have the space for any more souvenirs.
Everyone’s heard of the deer that you feed in Japan, and today was the day that we got to see what all the fuss was about.
As the bus cruised by the park, we all gasped at the sheer number of deer strolling around.
”We are here in the morning, so the deer might still be hungry,” said Ben. “Be careful. Some bow to ask for food. Others will grab your clothing.”
See?
We were here for 2.5 hours. The plan was to ignore the deer at first and go straight to the temple, then enjoy lunch and the deer on the way back to the bus.
Now, I know that between Vietnam and Japan, I’ve seen a lot of temples and shrines in the space of a month. But this temple was amazing.
Todaji Temple was built in the 700s, after Buddhism arrived in Japan from China. There had been a huge pandemic and around 30% of the population died. Back in those days no one knew about viruses and germs, so this new religion offered hope in a time of great distress.
Buddhism took off like wildfire. Back in the day there were 5 million people in Japan. Two and a half million joined the project to build a Buddhist temple in every area with over 100 of them being built. This one was like the mother of all of the temples.
The only part of the temple that has survived since those times is a small gate on the side, which is around 1,300 years old. This front gate is 700 years old.
There have been civil wars, as well as WWII fought around here. The main hall is hundreds of years old, but it’s still smaller than the original one built in the 8th century.
Bullet holes.
Every Buddhist temple has two statues of Buddha at the entrance. Usually, these face south, but in this temple they’re facing each other. This is the only temple in Japan where they do this.
These Buddhas always have one with its mouth open, to symbolise the beginning of life, like a baby crying…
… and one with its mouth shut, for the end of life.
This is the main hall. It’s MASSIVE.
This was sitting outside the main hall. It’s the only statue of Buddha that people can touch. This is the ancient version of going to see a doctor.
If you weren’t feeling well, you’d travel to the temple and touch the part of Buddha that was in pain. Migraines? Touch his head. Sore back? Touch his back.
”You travel a long way, touch the statue, you believe… sometimes people get better!” said Ben.
I got two for one statues in this photo!
The picture doesn’t do justice as to how big this statue really is. It towers over everything. It’s very impressive.
One hand is laid down, open palmed, on his thigh. It means, “Your prayers and wishes can be granted.” His other hand is held up, meaning “Do not be afraid.”
He is flanked either side by his deputies, covered with gold leaf.
This gold backdrop shows that this big Buddha is the centre of all the universes, and he has sent out versions of himself to all of the other universes.
The butterflies on the vase have 8 legs, not 6. This means that they are not of this world, but are from paradise.
I loved this statue. He is one of the 4 warrior kings who is there to protect Buddha. Or cause mayhem, perhaps.
Anyway, I was keeping an eye on him.
This is a model, built by prisoners, which shows how the original temple looked like back in the eighth century. The pagodas either side were huge. They had 7 levels, while the biggest ones nowadays only have 5. Notice the roof of the one on the right, with the gold sticking up.
Here is another warrior king, but he’s the leader. He holds up a container which is exactly like the Golden Pavilion we saw a few days ago. It’s showing that he’s ready to collect and guard the sacred remains of Buddha.
They were running out of money, so he got what remained of the gold leaf.
Outside is a replica of the gold topping of the right hand side pagoda. If you zip back and look at the model, it brings home just how big these buildings actually were. The main hall, which is huge, is actually 33% smaller in modern times than it was when it was first built. It would have blown the minds of pilgrims and worshippers back then.
I took a last look as I walked away. It truly is an amazing place.
Her little face!
The reason the deer are here around the temple is that they are the messengers from the Kami.
Now, this deer was smart. This is one of the places that you can buy the special biscuits to feed the deer. This one was waiting in the shop!
I asked a random guy to film this for me. It’s lucky I was wearing my jumper around my waist, because Ben was correct. Those bloody deer sneak up on you from behind and try to bite. My jumper had deer spit on it.
A bit of subtlety in the advertising here as I walked down the Main Street back to the bus.
I loved the colours here.
This lot have clearly eaten their fill and want to be left alone to digest in peace.
Then it was a two hour tour of the Toyota museum. I have nothing against Toyotas. My second car was a Corolla.
But I’ve rarely been so bored in all my life. These robots were interesting, I guess. They weren’t moving though. You had to watch the video to see what they could do.
And I suppose this car was cool.
I lasted 20 minutes, tops, before I went back to the bus to find my iPad. I spent a very pleasant hour sitting under a tree, reading. Far better than walking around looking at dismembered cars. I had enough of that when I was a kid and Dad was restoring vintage cars.
Speaking of Dad, Kate messaged me. He has pneumonia. Again.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything is going to be okay for Africa for me and India for Kate in a little over a week. That poor man can’t seem to catch a break at the moment.
Ben has an iPad and uses it to show us things he’s talking about each day. Sometimes it’s maps, but today it was a painting of the place we were driving to.
In the 500s, there was a famous artist whose name escapes me, who went over to China to learn how to draw and paint. He was prolific in his lifetime and there are still 20 of his works that still exist today. This one, of the Amanohashidate sandbar and the temple is the most famous.
The temple has a few things that I haven’t seen before. These fans, for instance, were in several trees near the main building of the temple.
The temple is dedicated to learning. This building is the oldest part, dating in the 1200s. Books were kept here.
Ben said that when he was in Australia to settle his daughter in at university, he saw graffiti In a lot of places. Stickers are like Japanese graffiti.
I swear, I’m not going to be embarrassed about owning a pram for Scout again. The number of doggy prams in Japan is huge.
The best place to see the sandbar is from the top of the mountain. The chairlift is the first one I’ve been on that doesn’t have a safety bar in the front.
The sandbar… because I’m not laboriously typing out that long name again… is 3.6-kms long. It’s covered with pine trees. Although it’s surrounded by sea water on both sides, somewhere in the middle there is an old well with spring water in it.
Amanohashidate means “the bridge to heaven”. It is named because it appears like a bridge floating up in the sky when you turn your back to Amanohashidate and bend down to look its upside-down view through between your legs from the Kasamatsu park.
Ben was freaking out as he was taking this. “Hold onto the handrail, Frogdancer!”
Here you go!
The two Kami who created Japan by laying an egg for each island had a ladder in heaven that fell to earth and became the sandbar. This legend was before the Shinto book, from before the 6th century.
The bays look like bites have been taken out. And even though a walk on the beach is WASTED without a dog being with me, It was time to head down for lunch and to check it out.
I bought a postcard here that I might frame when I get home.
Nonchalant on the chairlift. Me? I was worried I was going to drop Wanda, so I was clutching her to my chest like a baby. Incidentally, so far I haven’t left her behind anywhere on this trip. Knocks on wood.
I really think all the drama with Mum and Dad before Vietnam really messed with my head. Thank goodness I’m back to normal and perfectly normal and ordinary again!
As I was walking across the bridge I saw this beast setting off.
Gazing out to sea. I enjoy the whimsicality of dressing statues.
I decided to go and stand on that point of sand.
And so I did. Do you recognise my travelling boots? They’re the only shoes I’ve brought with me. I’m travelling the lightest I ever have for a winter trip.
It was almost as if I was on the beach at home. It was an absolutely sparkling Friday, yet hardly anyone else was here.
Tomorrow is Saturday though, so I’m expecting huge crowds like we saw at the Bamboo Forest. But for now, it was so pleasant to feel the space and the sun.
That looks like fun! As I got closer I saw that the husband had a baby strapped to him.
We were chatting about him, with their limited English and my non-existent Japanese, when I noticed something odd about his mother’s teeth…
She has jewellery on them! I asked if I could take her photo because I’ve never seen this before, then naturally, we airdropped.
Here I am!
At least the beach was being used properly by this person. If Scout smells any vestiges of the beach on my boots on Tuesday, she’ll be cross.
I had some time left to grab some lunch and walk through some shops before we left. I saw some mini sticks of incense that I thought might fit inside my little ceramic happy Buddha I bought at the Golden Pavilion, so I bought a couple of packs.
Then back through the temple I went.
It’s a shame I didn’t allow myself more time to wander around here, because it had some quirky aspects. Unfortunately, the alarm on my phone had sounded.
When I’m on a tour, I always set my alarm for 10 minutes before we have to get back to the bus. I don’t want to be THAT person who everyone is waiting for.
Incense actually being used! I took this photo to show you the charcoal brazier at the back, which people use to light the incense sticks. It has been kept burning for 100 years.
Goodbye, shrine!
Our next stop was Ine fishing village, where we were going on a boat cruise.
Now here’s where you can learn from my mistake. If you ever come here, it’s not the 300 year old fishing village that’s the attraction. Oh no.
it’s feeding the birds from the boat. Buy a bag of chips and have some fun.
Because it was crazy. I didn’t realise, so all I could do was watch other people literally feeding the birds from their hands.
This is what our boat must look like. Birds swarming around it, like something out of Hitchcock’s’The Birds.’ It was insane, but such good fun.
I liked the colours in this shot.
There were masses of seagulls, but what I really wanted to capture was the hawks.
I’m so glad I bought the new iPhone after Canada last year. Being able to take shots like these makes me so happy.
After this, we drove back to Osaka, where like a bad little quilter I went back and bought more fabric. In my defence, I also bought a present each for Izzy and Sophie. Got to keep the daughters-in-law happy!
