We didn't get to spend as much time in Hitoyoshi as planned.... however.
We had a decent amount of time till the train to get us to the next place so Marise and I went on a small adventure.
One of the landmarks we wanted to see was the red bridge Natsume is constantly crossing in the show.... problem was even though it was a 10 min drive it was over an hour by transit or walking from where we were.
After trying and failing to get on the bus we hailed a cab and heade to the next station.
After the taxi left we found out that this really was the middle of nowhere.
Sure there were no cars but there were also no taxis.
Oh well too late now. We headed to the bridge....
Suddenly a note from the group. "There is a landslide blocking the tracks to the station we need to get to.... we're coming up with a new plan."
Well shit. Still we are here and we are almost at the bridge when.
"New plan: take this bus and hour earlier then expected, please hurry back to the Ryokan as they will shuttle us to the bus."
........ Okay.
So we take our pics on the bridge, it's a really pretty area and I would have loved to have not rushed through it but ALAS... today is not our day.
But then we come back to the main problem... we couldn't figure out the busses.... and there were no taxis around.
Luckily we passed a Speed Racer themed gas station/mechanic and we went in and thank to google translate asked for help calling a taxi.
About 10 minutes later we had our ride and even even had time to visit a souvenir shop with some natsume merch i had never seen (so now.... I'm bringing back 3 too many mugs and a sake flask thing)
We went back to the ryokan, had a discussion with the owner of the ryokan about the show (she was very thankful for our sketches) and then we were off to our bus.
The bus was pretty fun, we got to see all these towns in the valleys of all these mountains. I'll be hones i prefer this rural setting far more then Kyoto or Tokyo.
After that we adjusted our shinkansen tickets and we were at the penultimate place in an hour.
After that we went for ramen, first time this trip for me.
It was very tasty but i didn't drink the broth... honestly i don't want to risk getting MSG toxic overseas when i only have a week left here.
Then Marise and i split to hunt down one of the many natsume cafes.
The deal is you get a drink, a coaster and an acrylic chain (both random)
I got a tanuma coaster and Takashi acrylic chain.
Marise got a Taki coaster and one of the Nyanko senses ones.
We also got hand towels, she pulled takashi and i pulled nyanko.
We will be back to try again.
The plan now? Day trip to Nagasaki, more Natsume Cafes (cause i need more merch apparently... at least it's all flat since i am pretty much out of space.) And then from there who knows.
No matter what though it'll be fun and that what matters.
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