Shimonoseki Shi

Day 37

I can’t believe we are on day 37 already it’s honestly going by so quickly! Now spring has fully bloomed in Japan we decided to enjoy this to the fullest but going to the “rainbow tulip garden”. This sits right at the end of the honshu island so much so that it has a view of the MASSIVE bridge that connects Honshu and Kyushu. We aren’t venturing onto Kyushu but it was very cool to see the bridge that connects the two!

The tulip garden was a train and a bus journey away and it’s absolutely stunning. It’s basically a smaller and quieter Amsterdam. Rows of tulips heading up the hill all colour arranged is just beautiful. Cherry blossoms dotted throughout the park provide nice places to sit and waste a few hours enjoying the view. As usual, we were the only foreign tourists there it all appeared to be domestic tourism visiting the garden and we got a few strange looks - I don’t think people are used to seeing foreigners here!

Sitting under a cherry blossom tree and enjoying the Sun we had a few snacks and watched the world go by for a while.

We discovered there was literally nothing else to do around the garden at all, it was frankly in the middle of nowhere apart from the bridge so we headed back. It was quite a long way to go just for the tulip garden but it was definitely worth it, it was so pretty!

We finished the day with a teppanyaki, we’ve definitely got better at finding alternatives to noodles now!

Day 38

Today we decided to reattempt fishing so we travelled to a tiny little town by the sea and found a little rod rental shop. A very sweet old man rented us some rods and then gave us a massive bucket full of krill for bait which I was grateful for as I didn’t want it to be live worms! We went to the end of the pier and began fishing next to a few other Japanese families. There are definitely worse places to fish with a lovely view out of the bay and watching the fishing boats go in and out.

After about an hour of not catching anything I was getting a little fidgety- those who know me well know I’m not the most patient person on earth! But I was saved by the very sweet old man. I feel a bit bad just calling him “old man” but i don’t know his name and even if I did I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to spell or pronounce it! He gestured for me to give him the rod so I did and he led me further down the pier and then showed me how he fishes. He definitely looked like he knew what he was doing more than us but I don’t think that’s very hard! After studying his techniques he passed me the rod back and about 5 minutes later I caught the first fish! I was absolutely chuffed with this. It was the smallest fish I’ve ever seen and I’m very glad that this wasn’t our plan for dinner as we definitely would have gone hungry! It didn’t matter to me though I was so excited until I then realised that I had to unhook it. Turning to Jacob he had the sudden realisation that I wasn’t going to unhook the fish and that it was now his job. You can call me girly and screamish if you wish and that’s probably fair but I really didn’t want to unhook the fish. In total I caught 3 fish and Jacob caught 1 but it’s not a competition and it’s not like I’m keeping track or anything ;).

Handing back out rods we thanked our teacher and then went to catch the bus which didn’t arrive which was great. After an hour and a half we managed to catch a different bus to a train station and then catch the train back. Today was our last day in yamaguchi and we are headed to Osaka tomorrow with more fish activities on the agenda tomorrow- wish me luck!Read more