Oh no, it's just the roof of our "luxury" cruiser.
So Fiona and I had a leisurely weekend together. She came to mine on Friday night, we rented movies, ate a very late dinner of curry (I needed a rest before cooking having stayed behind at school making the total time spent actually doing work= 2 hours) and going to bed before midnight.
Waking painfully early on Saturday (well, 7:30 is painfully early for a Saturday in my book) we were out of the house by 8:30 and driving through the mountain tops by 9. This was a lovely start to the day as we were surrounded by leaves of all shades and colours. Kind of like the UN of leaf colours. And thanks to a marvellous road system we were in a cafe in Shimane drinking coffee and eating cake at 10:30 (mmm, chocolate torte and orange peko tea...)
Having decided to not bother with the very important shrine on this visit we focussed on Matsue city's famous castle and surrounding areas, so our first activity was the boat tour of the castle's moat system. The boat was a small little boat with a kotatsu (Japanese table with heater attached to it) in the centre around which everyone gathered. As we pushed forwards with our tour guide talking to us and the good humoured group of tourists from Okayama cracking jokes around us in Japanese we suddenly became aware that the roof was lowering. We were going under a low bridge. And the roof was still lowering. We were almost laid flat on the deck of the boat to make it under the bridge, and suddenly everyone was laughing even more. This happened maybe five times, and each time the roof seemed to be that bit closer to the deck...
The boat tour takes you past many of the sights of Matsue city (the castle, Lafcadio Hearn's residence, a samurai house, some museums) but when we got off the boat we walked back and had a look. Except for the pottery museum which we didn't fancy. The samurai house was interesting with nice displays but smaller than you expected it to be (no TV room) and it seemed to be attached to all the other important old buildings (said foriegner's residence, a couple of shopping alleyways and the pottery museum). Across the road was another stunning sight, with the moat surrounded by autumn leaves.
With the weather threatening rain we trundled on towards the castle looking at pretty bridges and such along the way. And as we got to the main castle area we were accosted by a very enthusiatic and friendly Good Will Tour Guide who seemed very keen to help us. She was brilliant, walking us round the castle and explaining things such as lifting up floorboards to show where soldiers in the castle could attack outsiders... And she had a great sense of humour. Apparently Shimane doesn't get many foriegn visitors, so they are keen to attract as many as they can, largely by offering reduction son all the tourist spots (up to 50% off in some cases) and the people are very, very kind (we had people leaving their shops to show us where bus stops were).
The castle is one of the few in Japan that is original and not rebuilt. Our guide told us it was the 2nd largest although it didn't look very big. It felt bigger once you were inside. The top floor is unusual in that it was designed so that you could enjoy the surrounding panorama. It is all open, no glass, just beams holding up the roof and so it must be deathly cold in winter- the wind was blowing a gale through it while we were up there.
After wandering the castle grounds and taking more pictures we decided to head for the shops. Our plan was shopping, dinner at 6 and then leave just before 8. So we found the main stores (located near the train station) and at first we were rather disappointed, (No HMV, no Starbucks. Frankly this globalisation business is a bit of a let down...) but pretty soon things were looking up when we found the SATY mall with it's MUJI, and it's whole host of quirky shops inside. We still managed to leave by 6 though and after a delicious Okonomiyaki dinner we set off home to watch a video and were in bed by midnight.
Fiona headed back to the city on Sunday morning and I went walking round the riverside in my town, eventually heading home to fetch my bike and do some cycling which ended up in my finding the sites of current mountain repairs (ie tree cutting sites) where I became mildly alarmed that if a) a wild animal didn't bite me then b) a tree would fall on me. So I cycled home. And in the evening headed out through the misty mountain roads to see Rachel in Kibichuo. Those roads are much easier in the dark- car lights tell you if something's coming.
Today I am preparing for a seminar on Wednesday. Me and my best English teacher are presenting a workshop on textbooks. I'm just praying it goes better than my talks on vegetarianism in August...
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