I slept in this morning – probably the first time this entire trip – and thus missed this hot air balloon being set up on an island just beyond the hotel. I watched them rise slowly to about two balloon-heights in the air and float at that height for about an hour or so before slowly returning to the ground.
Breakfast was frightening. So many unusual items, with unusual tastes (for me). I usually like Japanese omelets but this one tasted strongly of fish, and the scrambled eggs on toast was full of mayonnaise. I ate a croissant and ran away.
The hotel seems popular based on the number of people using the baths! Neither my Kinugawa or our Fuji onsen were anywhere near as busy, and in five soaks (so far) I was alone alone once and that was for about a minute. The baths are truly wonderful, and I could soak in them every day 🙂
I found the train ride to Ishinomaki very scenic, since I like how Japan mixes rice fields with suburbia. In a few cases there was ocean (or at least the bay) on one side of the train, and rice fields on the other. I saw more than one house completed surrounded by rice fields, in some cases very large ones. I wonder what it is like living on a small island of land amidst all that rice?
A few times I saw big bales of white things being stored along the road. I wondered what they were but then when we stopped at a station there were a bunch alongside the track and I noticed they were oyster shells! I imagine these will be used for fertilizer or similar, but it’s incredible seeing how many there were no (and this photo is only a small portion of them).
I walked through town a bit when I returned from Ishinomaki and this photo shows cooked seafood being sold right off the grill. They had oysters, squid, scallops and whelks, and notably no fish. There are a lot of stands like this, and they seem very popular with the Japanese tourists. I was surprised to see young people and even children eating oysters, since I’ve always associated them with an old man’s food 🙂
Dinner was the same menu as last night, and I braved the beef tongue this time. It tasted good – just like steak – but the texture was not for me, and I barely ate it. I also discovered that what I thought was apple juice may have actually been some sort of alcoholic dragonfruit beverage, and I’d already drunk a glass before I realized that!
They’ve lit some fires overlooking the pond tonight, and when I went for a walk in the garden at sunset I could hear a large flock of seabirds somewhere not far away. This has been a well-needed relaxing day, and I’ve recharged myself a bit and am ready to travel further north tomorrow. In style.
You’ll see what I mean in tomorrows post 😉