Tuesday 28^th March 2017

Sunny morning but still cool.

Decided on one English breakfast (green lettuce with a strawberry and a homemade orange bun, a speciality of the region as many orange orchards in the area), and one Japanese. With Japanese meals you never know what to eat first or which sauce goes with what. Phil yesterday thought he was doing well and sought the waitress’ confirmation. Wrong! He did the equivalent of tipping his plate of porridge onto his scrambled eggs!

As we are spending another night in Gamamori decided to drive out and do a circuit of the nearby peninsula, through a large industrial area to the sea. The region is full of market gardens and an extraordinary number of large agricultural hothouses. Passed many, many crops of cabbages which were protected by blue or yellow netting. Great to see the restaurants and cafes using local produce.

Near Atsumi we walked up to the lighthouse – very different in the modern brutalist design. The exterior had bas relief of flying hawks in the upper concrete. We’ve seen many, many hawks flying around so the image is very appropriate.

Near the parking area there were a few small establishments offering seafood- so fresh and enticing that we had clams, a huge mussel (20 cms long) and the usual small dishes of pickles, rice and seaweed. Asahi produce a non-alcohol beer which all the drivers drink- may have to import this to Aus!.

Driving is pretty straightforward with traffic lights on many corners with lengthy cycles. Traffic is quite light, considerably less than expected and very polite drivers (still no horns heard). The serviced petrol stations do a careful wash of the windscreen and also the side mirrors.

For dinner we were able to get a reservation at the 14 seat Teppanyaki restaurant in the grounds of the hotel. The chef cooked on a very large, very clean hotplate in front of us. He put items into a pan, showed us how fresh they were and then proceeded to cook them. First meat we’ve had since arrival in Japan. A Vosne Romanee red wine accompanied the steak. Dessert was icecream topped with a delicious flambe orange sauce.