Day 8 - 5/20/18 Goodbye to New Friends and Hello to Old Friends

Day 8 - Sunday: Takamatsu and Shin-Osaka

After our morning soak in the communal hot springs, a quick breakfast, we were off to the fast boat to take us away from Shodo Island back to Takamatsu where we would meet with Tia and Tak to do some sightseeing. Our first stop was Ritsurin, the ancient Imperial gardens for the reigning warlord of Kakagawa Prefecture.  Of all the gardens we visited, these were truly the most stunning, with ponds filled with water lillies and lotus, trellises covered with wisteria, paths bordered with cherry trees, iris clusters, half circle wooden bridges, tea houses, museums, koi ponds, turtles, statuesque cranes, colorful ducks, and a marvelous, accessible walk from one end to the other.  At this moment, between cherry blossoms and wisteria, only the azaleas and iris and a few water lillies in bloom, we were told it was less crowded than normal. It was so very lovely to walk through with Tak and Tia and hear how this park had been so important to them over the three decades of their lives together, from having early first dates in the park, later Tia taking music lessons on traditional stringed instruments, and the two of them pushing strollers with small children and later three energetic little boys for picnics, and now with grown children, wandering through with us and sharing it with us. 

Turtle hiding in the lotus flower husks

Koi and Turtle

Museum 1 Scary Tiger w Bouncing Head

Museum 2 - Black Laquered Plate with Olive

Ritsurin Gardens is famous for its pines

The pines make a nice backdrop for photos

Crane in lilly pond

Boat rides in the pond

 

Yes, we're pretty happy!

Look closely--you may see us on the bridge.

Awesome Little Balls on Soft Ice Cream

We were also becoming aficionados of Japanese soft serve ice cream with awesome little balls on them.


Moving through the park, we toured the neighborhood where Tak had grown up, his school, saw where they had lived and ended up in a beautiful shopping district in downtown that was an immense covered walkway with old and new shops.  We visited the basement food market of a high end department store to marvel at the absolutely perfect pieces of fruit available starting at about 50,000 Yen ($50).  They were indeed perfect and beautiful, but it would seem like a frivolity to actually eat them.

We grabbed a quick lunch of a udon noodles with delicious accompaniment of veggies, tempura and fried chicken skins - can we say delicious!!!  Leaving Tak and Tia we felt as though we were saying goodbye to some very old friends though we had just met them three days earlier.  They pressed upon us small gifts of tea, handkerchiefs, fans, olive oil products on us as we dashed off to catch our train.  We will miss them and hope we get the opportunity to see them again somehow.
Our next challenge was the tight connection we had to make in Okayama where we switched from the Marine Liner to the Shinkansen to Shin Osaka, with a sparse 16 minute transfer time.  We made it with 3 minutes to spare, but we made it!

 Our next stop, Shin Osaka, was where we would meet and have dinner with a former graduate school friend of Rich's, Hajime Komura (who now goes by Jim).  He met us at the exit from the Shinkansen and took us to an absolutely incredible neighborhood restaurant with some incredible food in a traditional setting (tatami mats, attentive pretty waitresses in kimonos) and he ordered dish after dish for us till we nearly burst.  We ended up taking the eel dish home with us and after several rounds of sake and beer, we were exhausted but said a sad good-bye to Hajime and boarded the last train and then subway back to our apartment in Kyoto.

 

 The End