Another weekend away exploring our beautiful prefecture! This weekend took us to the rural delights of Yashiro Island where the tangerines were in season and “sweet as a nut, sweet like Tropicana”.

On our arrival we had a delicious curry in a very happening café (most of the residents on the island are over 65, so this is a big deal), where they actually removed the meat and replaced it with Tofu for me. Seems like my Japanese has improved! In fact, lovely Lauren pointed out that as we are so hard on ourselves when it comes to Japanese study, we should think that each day our Japanese is the “best it has ever been”. This will be my new outlook on learning this difficult language!

We took a hike, found an abandoned mafia car, got lost looking for a waterfall, and then eventually found said beautiful waterfall. I am glad that we listened to the logic of hearing water, rather than that of DJ Hayman, who was convinced if we just kept heading up the mountain through the trees and off the path, we would find it. He was certain there was water up there somewhere…his DJ sense is clearly in need of some work.

On Sunday we took the tourist track and decidedly less rural route of heading to Miyajima Island to see the infamous Itsukushima Shrine and to get pestered by deer. The autumn colours were beautiful and the shrine was pretty impressive! It is a dominating and iconic shrine. The crowds were pretty intense, and as I am not a fan of large crowds I found it a little harder to reflect on the beauty of nature. But still, it is nice that so many people turn out to enjoy nature and celebrate it. The trees of gold, red, orange, amber, and yellow were certainly worth bracing the crowds for. They really do know how to season in Japan!