Island Girl Escapades: japan

Showing posts with label japan. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Kawatana Human Torpedo Training School and Peacock Park

My weekend started with solo adventuring to the Kawatana Human Torpedo School ruins. The school was established during WWII to train kamikazes fighters, but are now the shell of buildings that are being reclaimed by nature. The largest structure has tress growing up through the floor and looks like in 20 years it will just be a pile of rubble.

I also visited Osaki Park (known to American's as Peacock Park). There is a large enclosure with about 70 or 80 peacocks and peahens, as well as an aviary with flamingos. There is a large playground with a small zipline and a fun spiderweb jungle gym.

Hiking in Saza and Osetocho Beach

I went on a hike organized by the base in the town of Saza. It was supposed to be a 3.6KM hike, but due to some wrong turns/miscommunication it ended up being a 10KM hike. It was beautiful and thankfully a cool day, but the hike consisted of narrow stairs up one side and down the other, over and over and over again.

The next day a friend took me to a cute little beach in Osetocho about an hour away. It is a little cove and looks like it would be a great place to go spend a warm day just wading in the water and laying out in the sand. It was windy and cold when we went, so we explored the rocks and admired the view.

One last picture...a baby at the bar. There is a new bar in town and apparently they welcome and serve all ages!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Hinamatsuri (March 3)

In Japan, Hinamatsuri is celebrated on March 3, which is known in English as Girl's Day. For Girl's Day families put up displays of Japanese dolls in their homes and sometimes you see them around town. To celebrate Girl's Day, a few friends and I had a Girl's adventuring day. We went to a hidden glass beach, and explored a couple islands; it was a wonderful day and I was glad to see some new areas that I hadn't explored before.

The tiny glass beach we went to.

Becky and her digging stick

The view from the glass beach

A piece of glass amongst the rocks

A self portrait

Another glass beach view

My best find of the day, a piece of broken pottery

The Giant Buddha on Ikitsuki Island

Hina Doll Display

The Giant Buddha and a playful lion

Saiwai Bridge on Hirado Island

"Sunday Ride"

Hirado Foot Onsen

Temple on Hirado Island

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Google Map Adventure #1

My new favorite app might be Google Maps. I keep seeing little tori gates shown on the map and convinced some friends to venture with me to find one today in the middle of a forest. We got a little sidetracked on the way by a Buddhist temple and then found the one from Google Maps and ventured up a narrow dirt road that was covered in branches. After that, we went to the nearest beach, a couple scenic overlooks to see all the islands on Kujukushima.