Osaka back to Kurahashi
Beginning of August we welcomed Kai, Morgans Japanese friend from Fukuoka aboard for a weeks sailing and Giovanni was also back to join us for the remainder of our time in Japan. Kai's mother and sister stayed on Kanaloa for a night and took Morgan and me for a visit to the Kobe aquarium. From previous experiences we know how well the Japanese do aquariums so its one of our favourite sight seeings, this one however is like going back in time as it had orca and dolphin shows, something I thought didn’t exist anymore. Mammals in captivity is always a hard one. Understandable if they have been rescued with the intention of being released back into the wild. Hard to believe these are the same creatures tearing off rudders in the Med.🤔
The shows are extremely entertaining and it’s a mystery how they get these huge mammals to perform and respond to commands, but there's still this strong underlying feeling that “this is very wrong.” Considering that they normally have a whole lot of ocean to swim in a swimming pool seems to be a poor substitute. But I did watch it and I did enjoy it, guiltily. Kai stayed for a week and had a great experience. He was great and made the best of what I imagine world be an unusual experience for the average Japanese person. He cooked us a delicious meal one night and his interpreting skills were very handy .
This trip will be spent backtracking through the inland sea to the island of Kurahashi where we will leave the boat for winter. We revisited a few islands we’ve been to before and a few days after our departure we ended back at Shodo island . As we entered the bay where we were to dock the wind picked up as forecast, we were planning to reverse alongside the dock when the gearbox failed and we couldn't get into forward, with the wind blowing us back onto the corner of the floating dock. We managed to secure a line from our stern and get some bow lines to the dock where with some serious heaving we could eventually secure Kanaloa. Pulling in 26 tonnes of boat against the wind is difficult. If we hadn't managed to get a line to the dock we were only a minute or two from being blown onto a large concrete sea wall and… well, don't want to think of how that would have ended. A few other boats were struggling to dock and all hands were employed to secure everyone. The gearbox has been giving us issues for a while now, you're not so much at its mercy if you're anchoring but for berthing its kind of mandatory.
Unfortunately we decided that we wouldn't venture to as many islands as planned but stick to a couple we had visited before and where we knew we were able to berth easily. The gearbox wasn't completely useless, you just had to nurse it into gear very carefully and as berthing can sometimes require a bit of back and forward manoeuvring we decided this would be the best plan.
We stayed at Shodo for a few days and hired a car for a tiki tour round the island. We also took the ferry to Okayama where we said goodbye to Kai putting him on a train home to Fukuoka. Next stop was Yuge Island. We knew a few people here and also got to benefit from the air conditioned sea station where Morgan could do some schoolwork in comfort out of the 35° heat.
Giovanni being the mad keen spear diver saw us snorkelling under the pilings of shore front buildings and bridges. A little scary at times given that we know there are poisonous lions mane and box fish jellyfish, still Giovanni managed to spear a few nice fish. He even managed to convince the local sushi chef to create an elaborate meal for us from his catch. Again another outstanding seafood feast was delivered.
We were invited to a few local summer music festivals while here. The drumming festival was brilliant, an assortment of huge drums and bongos but the sound was unreal. Unfortunately the video doesn’t do it justice.
After a couple of weeks at Yuge we said our farewells and carried onto Kurahashi via a nights stop at Osaka Shimozina Island. Lovely little restaurant here where we had a meal from the fish Giovanni had speared. We ended up having a bit of a sake night with the owner and her staff. Warren asked if there was an onsen nearby and she pointed to the roof. we soon deciphered that there was some sort of private bath there that she owned so arranged to come use it the morning. Turned out it was just that, a bath, albeit on the second floor of an exceptionally beautiful apartment that had just been built. The bath was outside on the balcony, so although it wasn’t an onsen as we knew it, Warren and I decided to make use of it.
Next minute we’re butt naked in the bath and the owner comes back in and starts taking photos of us from all sorts of angles while we’re both trying to cover up each others bits. Not even any bubbles to hide in. I was just laughing so much at this weird situation and she was probably really happy to get some shots of people who were really enjoying her bath. Don’t want to think what forum she posted these on, most likely the Japanese B&B that she uses. No shame.
As Morg and I were flying out of Tokyo returning home for Morgans exams we took the opportunity to spend a few days at Mt Fuji where Warren had hired a beautiful lodge in the forest. We weren't intending to climb Mt Fuji but decided to give it a go even though we didn't have any hiking gear with us . We ended up hiring some wet weather gear and set off at 5am for the hike to the top. We chose to climb the Fujinomiya trail which starts at 2380m ending at 3776m. It’s a relatively steep climb over jagged basalt which sounds like broken glass when stepped on and about half way you could feel the lack of oxygen. Morgan struggled a little until he got used to it- Giovanni has lungs the size of Africa due to his free diving and l didn't really notice any shortness of breath but more a slowing down of pace. Nobody was hurtling up the track that's for sure and a lot of the Japanese were sucking on disposable oxygen canisters. Not sure that this altitude warranted these and thought they may have been a bit of a gimmick but who knows.
Warren managed to get to 3010m which is a remarkable effort given his knees are very old.
We reached the summit about 1pm, clear at the top and cloudy below but still good views and a wee sense of achievement. Morgan had carried a half of champagne in his backpack so we cracked this open and downed it in 2s. We hung around the summit for an hour or so resting before our descent and marvelling at our sealed sandwich packs which had ballooned with the decrease in pressure.
My legs were feeling the climb and I knew going down could possibly be worse. About half way down I could feel my hips seizing up. By the time I got to the bottom I was walking zombie style too scared to bend my knees or hips. It’s a strange feeling when you’re legs just won’t do what they’re told. A few trampers suffered nasty falls with messy cuts from the sharp basalt which I was trying to avoid.
Our last few days were spent in the heat of Tokyo, hot hot hot. We ventured up the Skytree, Tokyo’s sky tower, where we had a great view of the city. A city of concrete housing 38 mil people. Unreal. We visited a couple of touristy things managing to work out the train and subway system, like anything, easy once you know how it works. The most challenging thing was walking up and down subway stairs, by this time Fuji had caused all our legs to seize and the four of us couldn’t get up or down stairs without clinging onto railings looking like we’d just hopped off our horse.
So now the boat is tied up in Kurahashi for the winter. Mast out and a big job list for the yard. Will see how this goes???
See you next year when we hope to venture north. Brrrrr.
Well done on the fuji climb. Anything over 2000m and I start feeling the altitude. Mt kinabalu was a huge challenge for me.
I can relate to the after effects on legs. Hope you didn't have go to a squat loo.