Burn Efi, Burn!!!

No, I am not a hater of Greeks, I just like to push my car to it's limits. Unfortunately for Efi, the lovely Daihatsu Move, or rather, unfortunately for me, those limits aren't exactly extreme. But she did struggle valiantly during last weekend's 700kilometre marathon. In a bid to fend off the annual disappointment when Eurovision season ends (a bit like the after-Christmas feeling but without the unbecoming weight-gain) I decided it was time to do something, so Adam and I went on a road trip along the northern coast.

I pride myself on having a good sense of direction, so it did feel like a slightly bad omen when I took a different route to Adam's and managed to miss the necessary turn off altogether, but pretty soon we were heading to mine, having kaiten sushi and sorting out plans for the weekend.

Saturday came and by nine o'clock we were in the car, starting our journey in what soon became torrential rain, and continuing in this fashion through the mountains of Northern Okayama, through the city of Yonago in Tottori and along lake Shinji in Matsue. This was all well and good, but it was taking hours, and most sights in Japan are time limited (temples often close at 4:30), so as it got to 12:40 we decided we'd scrap our first destination if we didn't find it in the next 20 minutes. And exactly 20 minutes later having avoided the oh-so-tempting sand museum (??) we were there, having followed a bus the last mile or so.

Stop number one was Iwami Gin-zan, an old silver mine where we were able to walk through the Ryugenji Mine shaft. That is, we were able to walk through it once we found it. It turns out Shimane prefecture is not fond of signposts. So having wandered through the rain with one umbrella we eventually found the mine and wandered through in all of 15 minutes, attempting to but not spotting any silver along the way. So it was back in the car, through the pretty town of Oomori and back on our way to a late lunch and then to destination number 2.

Izumo Taisha was our second stop for the day, and it was definitely worth it. As you come to the town where the temple is situated you pass through a giant stone Torii gate, through affluent looking streets until you come to the grounds. Izumo Taisha is the second most important shinto shrine in Japan (next to the Meiji-jingu shrine in Tokyo) and the Gods are said to meet here once a year. The buildings are beautiful and the restricted areas, which you can peak at only through fences, even more so. The grounds are covered in small pebbles and pine trees making the air fresh and the atmosphere serene. And bizarrely the birds were dive-bombing the walkways swooping from high to fly only inches above the ground on the main paths.

After the temple we stopped briefly at the local train station which has been closed since 1990 and is home to an apparently abandoned steam engine. The station is beautiful and quite a rarity it seems, being built in a classic Japanese style, rather than the Lloyd-Wright influenced style of many local stations.

Soon we were off again, back on the coast road for a three hour drive through Shimane and across Tottori into Tottori city. Discussions of course turned to dinner and when we agreed that tempura might be nice I declared (as I am prone to doing), "but you never see a dedicated tempura restaurant"). And as we left our bags and a tired Efi at the hotel I was once again proven to be wrong as the first restaurant we came to had a big, BIG poster of tempura outside. And freshly cooked delicious tempura inside which they cooked for you while you ate, bringing it in stages. Squid has never been so tender... A quick walk round the town and we retired for the evening rather tired from sitting in the car for so long.

Sunday was less of a trek. Our first stop was Tottori Sakkyu, the largest sand dune in all of Japan. And it was pretty big, although the opposite of desertification was happening and the inland side of it seemed to be growing plants. Which suggests that in a few years it will be an earth-dune. D'oh. Running down the thing was great as the wet sand supported your footfalls, but when it's dry it must be even more fun. Bizarrely the sea didn't smell of the sea. Perhaps Japan has become health conscious and the sea-salt is now of the low-sodium variety...

Our final stop for the weekend was Misasa town in Tottori, the home of the Nageiredo temple, a temple built into a mountain cave 520 metres from the base of the mountain. No one knows how. Again, having located the designated car-park we then had trouble finding where the pathway to the actual temple and after 20 minutes of wandering up paths to mini-grave sites we finally found our way. So we walked up a nice normal path to the lower area with some pretty temples and small gardens and lovely forest (the area is all mountains and forests) and eventually found the place where we were to start our climb. First we had to sign a waiver and have our shoes declared unfit for climbing (a nice sales pitch whereby we had to buy straw-and-string flip-flops for 700yen- Adam was not impressed). Then we had to put on a body-identification sash. And then we were able to start the 1-hour climb into the mountain. Which much to my relief turned into a 25/30 minute climb. Now, I'm not an experienced climber so this was hard for me, but Adam is experienced and said he'd not climbed anything like it before. Much of the climb was very steep with what felt like 70 degree angles at times, and you would have to climb up and pull yourself up tree-roots. And at points the path was maybe 2 feet wide and made of boulders with a nice big drop either side. It did confirm for me that I no longer have a fear of heights. Just a fear of a big gusts of wind... And the prize? We got to see a beautiful temple. Covered in scaffolding. D'oh. Apparently it's being restored and will be back to it's prime next year, but it was definitely good to go there and the climb was hilarious in all the wrong ways and definitely an achievement.

Now, our route had been planned to ensure that our journey home was as short as possible, and it should have taken at most an hour and a half back to mine. Except an hour into the drive we came to a section of blocked off road and a cheery Policeman who seemed quite happy while telling us that the mountain had fallen down. Again. D'oh, so after a 1 hour detour we were back for a quick cup of tea at mine before dinner and the journey back to Adam's. And feeling rather pleased with myself for managing the roads well all weekend (well, when we were driving at least) I took a wrong turning and spent 20 minutes driving round an industrial estate on the way home. D'oh. Again.