Emily and I were up at 4.50, though I was too busy with her to photograph the dawn as Graham did. There was lots of early fishing activity, with a few trawlers pulling out of the harbour. Floating above the water and in wisps on the hills opposite was a layer of white mist. Seagulls and crows flew around the port, with some birds of prey mingling with them too.
After the dinner the night before I was surprised that there was any fish left in the local waters, but we there was some for breakfast, together with more natto, and rice. I had a nap with Emily while the others took a walk around Miyako.
Owing to a misunderstanding in a little grocery shop, Nick came back with a kilo of tofu (instead of a small pack that I'd requested for Emily's lunch).
Passing through town I felt really conspicuous, and wondered how often they saw gaijin, let alone a family of six. Our main objective was to visit nearby Jodogahama Beach; as it was only a mile or so we decided to walk there but this was perhaps a bad choice, because it turned out to be a narrow but busy road with no pavement. The coast here reminded me and Nick of Huangshan: pines, mist and rocks. We first encountered a depressing concrete building that looked half derelict. Why can't the Japanese do attractive architecture when they are such aesthetes where dress, food etc are concerned?
We carried on through some lovely red pines down to a small launch area where we found a gaggle of swan pedalos - a continuing theme in each location we'd been to. A foot tunnel led round the cliff to the famed beach. We were glad to find that it was composed of flat white stones, rather than sand. Kate approved of the limestone slabs just off shore that looked as though they'd been neatly stacked. Some of them had lone stunted pines growing out of them, and a cormorant sat atop one.
We set up camp on the beach and Emily immediately picked up two stones and started sucking them. Nick, as is his wont, wasted no time in changing into his trunks and taking a dip. A Japanese couple with good English struck up conversation with Pam and Graham, and made the assumption that Nick was his brother! Must be because Graham looks so young, of course. After a while, Graham decided to swim too, and used one of Pam's skirts to change under.
There were busloads of tourists coming and going all the time; a couple of hundred seagulls were attracted by someone throwing bread, and Emily was beside herself with excitement watching the birds flapping about. Back at the small jetty we boarded a pleasure boat for a tour along the coast. The gulls' feet on the canopy above was very comical - at first I just thought they were wet leaves stuck on top, but then they started running around in pairs. The trip took in the cliffs and rock formations along about a five mile stretch of coast, and included a stack called Candle Rock and something resembling an elephant's trunk.
Back on dry land Emily was getting very fractious as she was overtired. I was about to feed her to sleep when I realised that she'd done a massive poo, involving a complete change of clothes. I finally managed to get her off for a nap while we had a makeshift lunch at the quayside kiosks, and Nick walked back to the hotel to get the car while we stayed there.
We drove north for 20 minutes or so to a place called Taro, commended to us by the lady at the hotel. It was a good suggestion to finish our day. Entering the little town we saw many references to tsunami defences, and when I looked it up later at home I found out that it was hit by a big wave in 1933 that killed over 5oo people. The main protection was a 10 metre high concrete wall running right round the little bay. On the seaward side, this was decorated in part with a mural. There were lots of huge concrete shapes in a jumble next to the jetty to reduce the force of a tidal wave.
The main attraction here, though, was an impressive rock stack called San Nou Iwa (three kings rock). The three are said to be a man, a woman and a taiko drum. The 'man' rock was topped by vegetation. Kate pointed out what looked like the profile of a face on one side, so perhaps that's where it gets its nickname from.
With a spare hour left, we decided to drive a bit further up the coast before turning for home, and came in a couple of miles to a nice little beach in a combe. The small beach was of fine grey shingle: again, better than sand that gets everywhere, and with the added bonus that it is a great exfoliator. Emily loves watching the white horses breaking, but when we stood her in the path of one she was scared when it rushed and roared up to her. Nick found some beautifully-shaped frilly seaweed on the shore that I was tempted to take home. It was very dark and misty on the way back to Miyako, getting dusky very early.
We sat down to another daunting dinner including squid, octopus, scallops and crab. I just can't face anything with legs or tentacles, I'm afraid. There was a big party staying that night, so we were shifted to an upstairs dining room. As eight o'clock neared we could see the waitress getting edgy, so took pity on her and left on the dot.
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