Thursday, July 28, 2011

Golden Week (mini)

Hey, guys! Guess what I did for Golden Week! What, Golden Week was months ago? Pshhhhh.....

I went to Oshima Island, part of the Izu Islands. It was a nice break from the hustle of city life. We rode a boat to get there, which we got on in the evening from Tokyo and got off of in the early morning at the island.

Here's the boat. You can even see Mt. Fuji in the background! Hi, Mr. Fuji!


There were a bunch of people with signs for rental car companies standing around the docks, but we didn't talk to them. It's an island! We don't need no stinking car. Then my friend Ami looked at how far away the hostel was, and we regretted our decision.

Here's a sign in the visitor's rest house right by the docks where we took a nap. Don't hit people with your backpacks yo!


Then we took a cab to the hostel. Even though it was 5:30 in the morning they let us check in. Thank you!!! I had forgotten my toothbrush so I had to buy one from them for 100 yen, but it was so flimsy the handle bent whenever I used it. They had coffee for sale for 100 yen, and you put money in a little box in the kitchen, so I had coffee all the time when I was there. Discount coffee, yeah!

Here's Ami and Ryan posing in front of the hostel. It was soooo pretty. So many trees.


We started walking around, wondering if we were going to hitchhike anywhere, and look! TEPCO! We're mad at TEPCO right now. I kicked it.



We walked down to the public baths, where you had to wear a bathing suit to get into (how very un-Japanese), and the water was sooo hot but the wind was soooo cold and it was difficult.

Oshima is famous for Godzilla. Here I am sitting on top of him.


Then we looked at the Oshima pamphlet, and listed as a tourist destination was the dairy farm. (All the milk in grocery stores was Oshima milk.) But it was far away. We hitchhiked there. I gave the old man an orange as thanks.

Ami talking to the cows!


Hmmm, now we're going to leave the dairy farm. How do we do that? We hitchhiked again. This time was a lot harder, but finally a kind Mister Inoue picked us up. He was really nice. First he took us to a bay to see if there were any dolphins playing that day. There weren't, so he called his friend to come help us look. So another old man came to help us look for dolphins, and left after a while. Then Mr. Inoue took us to his favorite spot, a trail up a hill.

Here's Mr. Inoue pointing at a plaque at the base of the hill marking the spot where a general did hara-kiri when they lost WWII.


Here's Mr. Inoue pointing something out at the top of the hill.


Mr. Inoue said his brother was swept away from Sendai in the tsunami, so in a couple of days he was going to go there to do paperwork and stuff like that. It was sad. He also said he was a banker (I think?) sent to live in Oshima from Tokyo but he liked Oshima better because it was an island lifestyle and much less stressful. The girl that checked us out at the grocery store told us she moved there from the mainland because she liked it better, too.

The next day, Mr. Inoue picked us up in front of the grocery store and took us to see Godzilla's birthplace. Here's where the earth spit him out, or something.



I just painted my nails. I don't want to type anymore. Sorry.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kimbo,
This was very interesting, thanks for the post and photo's. I love your blog posts!!!
love and missing you,
Daddy,
xoxoxo

J-Gro said...

This kind Mr. Inoue was just someone you met when you needed a ride?? How nice! You guys made a friend and then hung out with him again the next day! haha that's so funny and nice.

I like this, you guys look like you are having lots of fun. Nice island life.

Hope you're having fun with Mommy. :)

Love, your sister Jennifer

Anonymous said...

Kimbo,
I asked Janet if she saw your latest post and she said "yes". I said, "did you leave a comment?" and she said "No, I didn't know what to say." I said, "Just say 'hey Kimbo, like your port, very interesting'". hahahaha
love
dad
xoxox

Anonymous said...

I meant "post" not "port" :)

Kimberlina!! said...

Aww, thanks Daddy!