We started out the day with a spectacular breakfast. So many items! Delicious!
After breakfast, when we checked out, we asked the front desk about a taxi so we wouldn’t have to start the day with a 35 minute hike to the bus stop. To our surprise, the gentleman from the front desk offered to drive us which was great! We hopped on the bus and headed towards the Navy Castle.
On the bus, there was a lady who we are pretty sure was deaf who struck up a conversation with Erez. They were communicating through hand motions while I was trying to sort out which bus stop we were supposed to get off at. I first made contact with her when she was concerned that someone had left his cart at the back of the bus. I think he left it there on purpose for a moment, and I tried to tell her that, but she was adamant about getting him his cart and helping him off the bus with it. Very helpful lady. I think Erez enjoyed his interaction with her as well, even though he is not sure they were talking about the same things 🙂
We got off the bus, and started trying to orient ourselves so we would walk in the right direction. It was of course at the top of a rather large hill. We confirmed with some people who were at the bottom that we were going the right way, and then one of the men ran after us to give us a free Mandarin – so sweet of him! It is a special orange called a Hassaku orange which is specifically grown on Innoshima. It was delicious!
Of course, walking up the hill there were many interesting things to see:
Below is the view of a cemetery and one of the shrines from the ascent to the castle.
Now when we heard Navy – we thought it was the Japanese Navy, but it was not exactly. This was a museum of the Murakami Kaizoku Pirates who controlled the waters and defended the land around the Seto Inland Sea from the Muromachi to the Sengoku period (approx.1338-1590). They built many temples, shrines and castles, including the one we had hiked the day before. Their role was to act like the coast guard kind of, in cooperation with the local feudal lords.
View from the ground:
View from inside the “castle” (note: the castle was built is 1983 to house exhibits for the museum):
The Museum was so interesting – they had many artifacts from the Murakami clan like armour, chainmail, and very ornate helmets. There was a lot of documentation that was preserved including calligraphy scrolls, maps etc.
We also learned about the Innoshima Suigun Festival that is held every year to honour the memory of the Murakami Clan and their accomplishments. It is broken into three parts – the first is called the “Island Festival, and people dress up and parade in Warrior costumes, usually at the end of July, or beginning of August. The second part is the Sea Festival where people have a large scale dragon boat race in replica boats from the time (photo from the museum exhibit)
The final Festival is called the Fire festival and is described as follows on the Japan Travel website:
“As night falls, fires are lit and everyone’s attention turns to the beach as historical reenactments begin. The whole event is meant to the represent the triumphant return of the suigun warriors dressed in samurai armor and the joyous reception provided to them by the villagers who have kept the home fires burning while they were away at sea.
Things start with the reenactment of the return of the boats, followed by samurai pirates marching up and down the beach, and the parading of huge torches which sometimes clash creating showers of fiery sparks.
The whole evening ends with more drumming, the punching of fists in the air of the assembled suigun warriors and an impressive 15-minute fireworks display over the sea.
I wish I was here during that time because that sounds epic!
Here is the URL for the Japan Travel site if anyone is interested in seeing photos and to learn more:
https://www.japan.travel/en/sg/jbyj-blog/innoshima-murakami-suigun-samurai-pirate-fire-festival
There was a lovely small Buddhist temple at the base of the mountain where the museum was:
Then we started the trek back to Kurashiki – and as usual, it was a journey. Google Maps was convinced that we had to walk 35 minutes in the heat of day, on the concrete to catch our bus. It also led us astray in the morning. It was like the bus we took didn’t exist according to google maps. We checked the closer bus stop and figure out there was a bus, talked to the driver, he advised us where to transfer (hint – not where google wanted us to go). At the transfer point, we saw a couple wearing t-shirts with matching slogans on them – I managed to sneakily get a photo of the husband.
Solid words to live by in my opinion…
We also tried some hilarious “food” from a vending machine:
Here is Erez and the bridge
We got back to Kurashiki around 4 and I checked into my hotel. We then headed to the outlet mall to shop for some outdoor stuff that Erez needed – raincoat, rain pants, and some hiking shoes. He has committed to two hiking trips with his coworkers and was planning on wearing his Blundstones. I have tried to buy him hiking shoes in the past with great difficulty – we always gave up. It took him an hour to choose a pair, but we finally bought him some.
We finished off our night at an okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki is a giant savoury “pancake” with shredded cabbage and other vegetables as well as seafood and meat. Erez ordered the “special” one which basically has everything but the kitchen sink in it – and was advertised as 1.5x regular size. I ordered a vegetarian one. It was HUMONGOUS – we could have shared one. The pictures do not really convey how big the plates were. We felt guilty leaving food on our plates, but Erez doesn’t have a fridge in his dorm and I was leaving in the morning.
This was mine:
This is Erez’s
All good things must come to an end. We said goodbye at the bus station. I miss him already, but am so excited that he is having this adventure. He told me today that he is going to play at an Ultimate tournament on a beach on June 8th with a team here- so that’s really exciting 🙂 I am also so glad that I got to accompany him for a few days on his journey here.
Tomorrow I head to Tokyo and then home on Tuesday. Hard to believe it is almost over…