Destination Unknown

We didn’t have plans to take a trip during Golden Week, but got up in the morning and decided to go somewhere in the car. We didn’t know exactly where we were going, but we headed toward the coast. 

 

It was very windy along the coast and there were windmills to take advantage of the wind.

 

By chance, we found and stopped at an art gallery and coffee shop that looked out over the sea.

After looking at the paintings, we ordered coffee and a cookie dessert. The owner of the establishment is the artist and the coffee roaster. He came to our table to talk with us.  Ted had an iced coffee and I had special mocha, which I thought would be "mocha" flavored, but it was strong "special" coffee.  The atmosphere was so comfortable that we took our time with our treats.

 

We enjoyed a beautiful view from our table and even the bathroom had a view.

 

If we pass that way again, we will definitely stop and have a coffee.

I took some photos from the car as we drove along the coast and we stopped where we could.

 

We came upon a mountainous area and drove through some tunnels.

 

We took a little one lane side road until our path was blocked by snow and we had to turn around.

 

We stopped to take photos at a small park with an observation tower.  We didn’t see any shika (deer), but we saw shika poop.

 

 

 

Several places along the way we saw the flying Koinobori (carp) in honor of Children’s Day. According to Wikepedia, “A typical koinobori set consists of, from the top of the pole down, a pair of arrow-spoked wheels   with a ball-shaped spinning vane, flying-dragon streamer that looks like a windsock,  a black koinobori and a red koinobori. If more boys are in the household, an additional blue, green and then, depending on the region, either purple or orange koinobori are added. The red koinobori's color can be varied as pink. These carp sets are flown above the roofs of houses with sons, with the biggest (black) koinobori for the father, next biggest (red) for the mother, and ranging down to the smallest carp for the youngest son.”

 

By late afternoon, the dark clouds were threatening.  We stopped to eat at a little local restaurant.  There was traditional Japanese seating, but we chose to sit in the chairs to eat our meal.

 

To get home, we drove away from the coast and through the mountains, where the snow is still deep.

 

It was almost sunset when we were near Miyajima Numa, so we stopped so Ted could take some photos of the 73,000 birds that were there.  I stayed near the car and the visitors center and looked for my goat friend, but he was nowhere to be seen.

 

It started raining as we arrived home.  It was a perfect day.