Eek – well – what can we say? We have all these shore excursion credits that can only be used for, well, shore excursions and we don’t want to let them die….so…a tour.  This is a brand new port for us – but also for the Westerdam. We know it is a very small little town, and not much to do, and there is a castle and a shrine that this tour covers, so we figured why  not. Plus, it is raining and ugly out there – so it isn’t like we’d be very happy just walking around the town in the wetness.  Tour it is.

The tour time starts late – so we have plenty of time for our morning routine and are in the theater early for our 8:45 meeting time. The tour is described as strenuous with many steep and uneven stairs, plus a narrow walk along a cliff.  We figure we’ll be safe with mostly the more athletic passengers- hoo boy, would we be wrong!  There are 3 buses going on this tour.  Three!  And everyone around us is, well, not young and not athletic.  Oh, this should be fun!

Understanding tour strategy, even though we’ve not done one yet on this ship, we position ourselves near the exit and end up being one of the first to board the coach – well – we thought we’d be first but there is another passenger – who I call Bo Peep because she wears her obviously bleached blonde hair in two high-riding pigtails all the time – and I mean all the time – who is already on the bus and in the first row of available seating.  Hmmmm….guess she has a better strategy!  But no matter, we are in the next row and we have a good window (as opposed to yesterday!!!) and we’re out of the rain. We’re happy.

The bus finally fills up and we are off to the Udo shrine – the shrine in a cave.  Our tour guide is Mae, who is so sweet and well into her retirement years, or at least could be.  Although not surprising after our lecture on the declining Japanese population!  At any rate, she is so sweet and funny. She tells us the whole story of the Udo shrine with little faces on fans – sort of like anime she says.  Besides the interesting story, she just has us all in the giggles with the fans and the faces of the princes – Umi and Yamasadi – and the princess of the sea, Tori.  I won’t recount the story, but essentially Umi falls in love with Tori, then he doesn’t follow the “rules” and he peeps at her when she told him not to, she becomes furious, leaves him and their baby who lives in the cave where this shrine is built.  On the way back to her land in the sea, she takes her breasts off (yeah, well, it’s a legend) and throws them against the wall where they stick and start dripping with milky water for the baby.  Oh – and she arrived on the back of a turtle, who waited and waited so long for her return that he turned into a rock – which we will see at the foot of the cave.

As we listen to Mae recount the story of the birthplace of Imperial Japan (Umi and Yama), we are driving along the raging coastline with beautiful rock formations standing strong amongst the heavy surf.  It’s gorgeous. 

Up into the hills we go, arriving at our destination in less than 30 minutes.  From here, we begin our stair climbing…but first…they have to get off the bus.  Sigh.  Mae has pointed the way, and we start out with her, but end up going ahead, with pigtail lady in the lead and another lovely lady who we become talking/walking friends with (haven’t got a clue what her name was!) up front with us as we navigate a whole bunch of stairs that lead us up over a hill, then down through a couple of shops and café to the main entrance of the shrine. 

A beautiful red gate beckons us into the entry and long pathway along the cliffside that leads to the shrine.  It is gorgeous up here – the gate contrasting with the surly grey skies, the majestic grey marble statues lining the path on both sides.  It is almost better in the overcast and grey, there is so much contrast, even the grey marble against the grey sky.  So Japanese!

We continue down the path, Mae catching up with us and showing us where to cleanse our hands in the flowing fountain on the mountain side.  Then down the slippery rock stairs,  overlooking the rock formations – and the turtle which has a rope around the top and a hole that you can try to throw balls into to make a special wish! – at the foot of the cave. 

Because of the description in the tour overview, I wasn’t expecting the shrine to be right at the mouth of the cave!  I was thinking we still had a treacherous ways to go, but nope, it is right there, nestled in the entryway. Talk about a contrast – brilliant red against the glistening dark grey stone cave walls.  Very majestic.  Mae has taught us how to give alms by throwing a 5 yen coin into the box, making a wish, then bowing twice and clapping your hands twice.  Ed and I both make our wishes in front of the shrine, then go on to explore around it. 

You can walk all the way around and here is the sacred bunny (the sound made to pronounce bunny and the sound of the deity buried here, Ugah, are the same, so people began leaving bunnies here at the shrine as an alms to the deity – this became a thing and now there are bunnies everywhere along the paths).  Once painted white, people have been coming here, making wishes to the bunny and rubbing it so much that the white color is being rubbed off to reveal the bronze beneath.  We both rub the bunny and make our wishes, then continue on around the shrine.

And what do we find next?  Tori’s breasts!  Still dripping milky water! Which Mae tells us we can rub and then lick the water off our hands. Um. Yeah, that’s not happening Mae!  (Even Mae doesn’t do it, but mimes what she’s talking about!)  Too funny!

Done with the shrine, and eschewing the souvenirs and amulets (they’re super expensive!), we head back up the path, stopping everywhere to take pictures of the gorgeous scenery – out across the water, along the path with the bunnies, just everywhere we can look!

We explore another shrine set up on a hill, with an awesome entryway of arches…

…then wander out into the shopping area, heading to the Rainforest Café (no, not that Rainforest Café, another one, but with the same name) for a cappuccino and to shop around the gift store where Ed gets a really cool shirt with a Saki bottle on it.  From here it’s the long slog up the stairs and pathways to the bus.  But we take our time, taking pictures of the gorgeous little flower bushes along the way.  Really nice!

Back on the bus early, most others are as well. Hmmm…this might not be a bad group.  Of course Mae has given tons of time to do this visit so there shouldn’t be any problem with anyone not getting back on time. We actually end up leaving about 5 minutes early (woo hoo) for our next stop, the Obi Castle.

Turning inland, we begin to drive past the rice fields that dot the countryside here, while Mae gives us a lesson on all the different produce and meat produced here.  From Wagyu to rice to mango – she goes through a whole assortment of items, keeping us occupied on the 30 minute drive to the castle.

The castle is really just the grounds and walls, the castle buildings having been removed in 1873 during the Meiji restoration and modernization period.  But there are a whole host of other buildings and houses here we can explore.  We all walk together up to the main entrance, which is quite imposing, and then into the entrance courtyard where you can still see the original stone walls (as Mae continues to point out “original” rocks). 

Walking up into the grounds, we stop at the Shiawase-sugi Cedars square – 4 monstrous cedar trees towering over the square at each corner.  Four is normally not a good number in Japanese (it means death) for some reason here it means happiness.  If you stand in the middle of the 4 cedars facing each other, you will share in its happiness.  Well, it’s a little too crowded here now to actually do that, so we just snap a couple of shots and head on out.

Up the stairs to the Matsuo No Maru nobleman’s residence from the Edo period (1603 – 1868).  This is only a reproduction, but it is totally cool. Mae is guiding everyone around, but we’re off on our own tour – without all the people!  There are tons of rooms spread out over the footprint of home; a formal sitting room, tea room, bedroom, bathroom (with the great sign telling us not to use this toilet!), the kitchen and storage. There is also this amazing steam room with adorable cartoon explanations of how it works.  We are absolutely having the best time with the juxtaposition of this polite, constrained society and their total fixation with animated cartoon characters!  Continuing on through the house, we pass the small little garden area which brings us back to the front of the house and our shoes!

Great visit.  But now we have a dilemma – do we wait out here for Mae, who could be who the hell knows how long with these people?  We end up doing so, only to see what else there is we might miss without her guidance.  Turns out not much. She actually gets a little confused as she exits the house and can’t figure out where to go next.  Uh oh. I think somebody said something rude to her in the house or something, and threw her off her game. Wouldn’t surprise me with these folks.  But I digress.  We end up going to the little museum, which is actually really great, but really little.  And it is WAY too peopley in here.  Even with most of them wearing masks.  We take our photos of some really great costumes are armor – that Mae tells us weighs over 20kg.  We believe it!  And some great Japanese carved wood and stone objects, then we skedaddle!

We want to get some food – and Mae had mentioned a couple of restaurants – which she later told someone else that they don’t have enough time.  Oh well,  you know us!  We’re outta there. Haven’t a clue where the group went next – there were some interesting looking houses outside the main gate- but skip those and head straight to the restaurant near the parking lot.  Ed peruses the menu while I walk around the corner to ensure the bus is really still there and hasn’t moved somewhere else to pick us up (it was) then we try to figure out what to do with no English anywhere!   We didn’t know if anyone would seat us, so we just sort of hung around the entrance until one of the waitresses gestured for us to come in.  Ok – seat yourself – we grab a little table with 4 seats, divided by plexiglass and peruse the menu that the waitress brings over.  Fortunately, she has a sort of legend in English (because we’re having problems connecting with data here and Google translate isn’t working properly) which we can kind of make work.  It’s really which type of noodles do you want – and do you want a “set” with fish cakes or just the noodles.  Buckwheat noodles (soba) please, the full set and a beer – to share (we learned our lesson yesterday!).  That seemed to work – and here comes our big beer – this seems to be a big beer part of the country – and then our meal. 

As we wait, I go out front to a little stall that has a bunch of fishcakes with different herbs and things in them.  I select a fishcake with boiled egg, figuring Ed would like that – and I think the lady asks if I want it hot or cold.  I’m clueless, so I just say yes.  She giggles and gives me the egg ball, which is cold, I pay my 250 Yen and take it back to the table.  It is sort of like the Japanese version of a scotch egg – but the fish cake is really fishy. Ick for me – Ed enjoys it though, although we both think it would be better if it were hot.  Next time!

Then our lunch arrives.  Oh my – it was fabulous!  An excellent miso broth with these yummy soba noodles and little pickled radish or some sort of veggie that I couldn’t really bite but sort of just sucked on (ok, I know, gross, but it worked and it was good!).  Accompanying the noodles were two types of fish cakes (which apparently are a Miyazaki specialty) which were great.  Not too fishy, one of them was actually a little sweet.  Yum.  Much better than the egg ball we started with!

Meanwhile, the place is filling up rapidly.  Jam packed.  We’re pretty much done, just have to finish our beer, which I give to Ed to chug, coz….you know what I’m going to say….it’s way to peopley in here!  Weaving our way out of the now crowded gift shop to pay, we finally break free out into the drizzling afternoon and wander around the few little shops set up in the parking lot.  I end up buying a cute set of panda bears – don’t ask why pandas, we’re clueless as those are typically Chinese, but I think they are cute and more affordable than the bunnies at the shrine!

Back at the bus, we are almost all here early – except one lady, who was having trouble making it down the stairs and coming out of the castle.  One of the guys on the bus sweetly went back to help her.  And she must have really been having problems because it takes forever for him to show up – and then she’s not with him.  What???  He says she’s in the gift shop because she says she still has time.  OMG.  Really???  Come on.  Oh, and PS, she’s one of the ones on the bus who is hacking and coughing and sniffling and ALWAYS takes her mask OFF when she gets on the bus – honestly?

She finally makes her way back to the bus, and we can all now leave.  Please get us back to the ship and off this bus!  It is raining pretty steadily now, so we have ditched our plans to go into town and walk around.  Arriving back at the port we see that they have set up all sorts of little shops – like a farmer’s market – inside a blow up plastic looking tent thing I kept calling a bouncy house.  How sweet and fun!  There’s saki and the other liquor (the name of which I completely forgot), little crafts, Nori snacks, and wait for it – strawberry mochi!  Oh, we are definitely getting a strawberry mochi!  Even though we’ve got Pinnacle grill reservations tonight, we’re snacking!

After our purchase, we head back to the ship, noticing that they have also set up 7 food trucks here.  Oh wow, what a great idea!  We wish we had known, we might have waited to eat when we got here. But then again, it’s 1:30 by now, and with a big meat meal in our future, it’s probably a good thing we didn’t know about this in advance.

Back aboard, we hit the lounge for a drink (wine for me, cappuccino for Ed) and a couple of shrimp to snack upon.  Then it’s the cabin for the afternoon – with our mochi snack!  The best strawberry we’ve had in a long, long time!

And then the norm….the gym…the pool bar….dinner in Pinnacle…and change in plans – we’re going to the late show with Cantare.  Originally the dancers and the piano players were scheduled, but we’re having rough seas, so programming has to be adjusted.  Pill time for me!  And then tomorrow, it’s Kochi … probably in the rain and gale force winds, but, well, nothing we can do about that!