Naru Island

For Friday 7th October

After having a great time staying at Mr and Mrs Yamaguchi’s establishment, this morning it was time to pack up and leave.  Firstly, we were treated to a huge breakfast which included toast with jam, and fried egg and crab meat.  The Yamaguchis gave us a gift of a package of green Fukue tea and some mochi sweets.  They were so good to us and we are very pleased that we found them on the Internet. They made our stay on Fukue Island so enjoyable.  We’ve asked them to visit us in Australia, but they have to wait a few more years for Mr Yamaguchi’s pension to kick in!

John with Mr and Mrs Yamaguchi

We said our farewells and rode down to the port to make sure we could find the right place later in the day.  That done, we went to the Post Office to be served by another friendly talking ATM and then went to have a look at the street alongside the old samurai residences.  This was the area where the middle-ranked samurai once lived.

Samurai Street

There are only a couple of old houses remaining but the walls along the street are still standing.  They are very skillfully built and make the street very attractive.

We were feeling a bit weary with all the sightseeing we’ve been doing, so we went back to the ferry terminal to rest, relax and read.  Once I discovered that there was free Wi-fi access in the terminal, I caught up a little on the blog backlog.

The ferry ticket sales did not open until 1.00pm and the ferry was due to sail at 1.25pm so we made sure that we were at the ticket window as soon as it opened.  That was all fine until the lady at the ticket office started giving instructions and asking questions in rapid Japanese that left me stumped.  Fortunately, there was another passenger there who was taking a vehicle on board, so he was able to show us what to do and showed us where to go to board the ferry.  We filled in the necessary forms, went to the scooters and kitted up, rode round to the correct loading area and got ourselves on board with about 10 minutes to spare.  This ferry had seats like a plane, so we sat right at the front to get a good view.  All around were hilly/mountainous islands with rocky cliffs.  As expected, the sea was very calm.

Thanks to the help of Mr Yamaguchi, who phoned ahead on our behalf, the lady from the minshuku where we will stay for the next two nights was at the ferry terminal to meet us.  Well, actually, she was parked right in the middle of the road where the vehicles drive out of the disembarking area!  We followed her to her lovely minshuku (called “Shiroyama”) and went in to have a drink.  Bad luck for John – it was iced tea!  He managed a bit of it to be sociable and then we went to get the scooters unpacked. 

Shiroyama - our accommodation on Naru Island

The little red mark is the location of Shiroyama

Our room in Shiroyama

We then went for a walk around the local area followed by the young boy from the minshuku as well as a girl who seemed to be of similar age.  They were both on bicycles and rode up and down the road as we walked.  They couldn’t speak English but I was able to ask their names and ages and they said they were both 9 years old.  John demonstrated his stone-skimming skills and the boy enjoyed trying to compete.  The girl was as good at throwing as I am!

Taisukei skimming stones

When we got back to the minshuku, both of the children came inside, so we realised that they were brother and sister.  I looked up the word for twins in my English/Japanese dictionary and asked the minshuku lady if they are twins.  She said yes, they are and they go to school in Nagasaki but are presently on holidays.  She said their father is a “shouboushi”.  That was a new word to me, but fortunately it’s in my trusty dictionary, so we were able to establish that he’s a firefighter.

We had our baths and then were called for dinner.  This was one of the best dinners we’ve had so far! 

Trying to smile despite leg contortions

The minshuku lady asked what time we’d like breakfast, and whether we were going out sightseeing for the day tomorrow and when I said we were she said that she’ll make “onigiri” for us, included in the price.  This was all conducted in Japanese and restored my faith in my limited abilities and I’d been starting to wonder if my studies had all been in vain.

We spent the evening relaxing in our room with TV and Kindles, ready to take on another day of sightseeing tomorrow.