Drive around Chugoku area in Japan. Chugoku include Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Shimane, Tottori and Okayama prefectures.

Lake Toyoda
21/05/2019 / Last updated : 18/08/2020 d.d Drive Chugoku Area

Susa Hornfels, Toyota Lake and Shimonoseki Fish Market　須佐、豊田湖、下関

Day 94 Very unsettled weather this morning, blustery with patchy sunshine and very dark, threatening clouds around. D. is on-line, doing some research, so I go for a short stroll to the nearby river. I notice two rainbows and, as I am admiring them, I realize one is between me and a nearby clump of trees. I make a break for the car but I am too late and am caught in the downpour. We sit in the car, in the pouring rain, wondering where to go as our destination for the night is only a couple of hours away. We decide to head for Hagi and then plan what […]
Izumo Taisha
19/05/2019 / Last updated : 09/10/2020 d.d Drive Chugoku Area

Izumo-taisha, stone rabbits　出雲大社

Day 93 A night marked by heavy rain and thunder but the morning brings pale sunshine, even if the thunder is still rumbling around and the western sky fantastically dark. I make a trip to the toilet, thinking I have time before any serious rain arrives. As I emerge, the hail is sheeting down. This doesn’t last long and, after a short chat to the lady cleaner, I make it back to the car. We drive across the road to a Lawson car park for breakfast as, uniquely, this michi no eki has no vending machine for coffee. Izumo-taisha Our next stop is Izumo-taisha. Its big hall, immediately, made me […]
Shinjiko
18/05/2019 / Last updated : 18/08/2020 d.d Drive Chugoku Area

Adachi museum and Shinjiko　足立美術館、宍道湖

Day 92 Adachi Museum After the thunderstorms of the night, the morning breaks raw and dripping. A short drive, mostly along a river bank, brings us to the Adachi Museum of Art. This museum is famed, and rightly so, for its gardens. It has a plaque to state that it has been the winner of the award for the number one Japanese garden for thirteen consecutive years. The gardens are perfect and that is, perhaps, the only problem with them. The Gardens For the most part, you cannot enter the exquisite gardens but only view them through the plate glass. At certain places it is permitted to step outside. The […]
13/05/2019 / Last updated : 18/08/2020 d.d Drive Chugoku Area

Sakaiminato – Kitaro town　境港

Day 91 Kaze no Ie michi no eki It is a cold, foggy morning with ice not just on the windscreen but the whole vehicle is encased in a thin layer. The wooden decking, attractively fronting the toilet area, is treacherous. Kaze no Ie michi no eki is noted for its large vegetable market. A few people are arriving to shop, but it is closed. It shut for the winter on the 1st of December. We drive to Sakaiminato and the temperature rises by 10 degrees as we descend to sea level. The area around Mt. Daisen is very pleasant. There are steep valleys, wide river beds and plateaus. It […]
manhole cover
12/05/2019 / Last updated : 18/08/2020 d.d Drive Chugoku Area

Kurashiki and Hiruzen Highlands　倉敷、蒜山高原

Day 90 A blustery morning with leaves flying everywhere, the michi no eki Ipponmatsu Tenboen is busy with trucks coming and going but not much other activity until a JA market opens selling vegetables, mikan and kaki (persimmon). Behind the michi no eki building there is a view down over a wide, flat valley and beyond to a wider flatter sea. The shining fields stretching to the far hills appear to be salt beds and there are clearly canals running from the sea. Some fields are flooded but others appear black. I thought, at first, they were solar panels but there are no connecting power lines so they must be […]