5 May 2009

Today is Kodomo No Hi: Children's Day, marked by the flying of carp banners outside the homes of those with kids.

Emily woke at 5.50, even though it was not that light because it was raining. The moisture made the surrounding hillsides look lovely, with their variety of trees (and patches of the ever-present cedar, that was widely planted after the war to provide timber for rebuilding, only to proliferate at the expense of some native species).

After her performance the day before I was I knew that Emily was very hungry; however, she only deigned to eat half her cereal and a couple of inches of banana with much cajoling. When it was our turn to eat, we went downstairs to find her place laid with an omlette, rice and a pot of yogurt. We managed to feed her some before she took over and sprayed yogurt all around. At least she finished it, but we couldn't eat our own breakfast in peace. She started making a fuss, and seems to have several teeth breaking through, so I decided to give her a rare dose of Calprofen, and indeed she was all smiles afterwards.

With much solicitous advice from our hosts, we set off south along the coast road, armed with borrowed umbrellas for the expected rainy day ahead. It was only 15 minutes to Dogashima, where there is a famous sea cave with a collapsed roof. We'd heard that there were boat trips that went into the cave, so we joined the queue. Despite the rain the attraction was very popular, and we crowded onto a motor launch for a twenty minute trip that first took in some of the amazing islands and stacks close to the town,

before entering the narrow portal into the cave. From under the fallen-in roof we could see some onlookers peering down from a viewing area.

After getting off the boat we were waylaid by a gaggle of old crones who were excited at seeing Emily. One of them, with a lurid gash of red lipstick, practically pulled her from Nick's arms, then said 'byebye papa' and made as if to walk off with her. Emily looked thoroughly alarmed. Another quizzed him about where we were from, and on hearing that we live in Tokyo she made a stabbing motion and exclaimed that it is a dangerous place.

With rain starting, we quickly made our way up the cliff path to go and look down into the cave ourselves.

Now Emily got quite upset as she had been up for so long and was very hungry, so we went to the nearest restaurant in order to feed her. Luckily it was a reasonable sort of place and we ate fairly well too, after she'd wolfed her sachet lunch and started tucking into ours as well. I was very glad to see her with a good appetite after a couple of difficult days, and let her try most things even though not very healthy.

Carrying on southwards, the motion of the car soon soothed her off to sleep. It really was spectacular scenery, and we were surprised that there were hardly any viewing points on the narrow road. Emily woke up when we did pull over, and we quickly continued to a monkey sanctuary the pension owner had mentioned. The monkeys were to be found in a steep-sided valley by the sea; little more than a large cleft in the cliffs really. There were apparently around 300 in the area.

I found them a little aggressive at times and was worried that Emily would try to touch one, so we had to carry her most of the time. Along the shore we found a small beach of rounded rocks and pebbles and we stayed there for a while.

We were trying to teach Emily how to throw pebbles, without success. It came on to rain heavily so we made or way back to the car.

We'd noticed an unusual place on the way down, a Nepalese-themed cafe, so we went there for a drink and snack. It was such an odd find in an out of the way place like that. The coffee was excellent and so were the muffins. Our mouths watered at the smell of a curry being served, and we wished we'd known about it for our lunch meal. With the weather closing in we went straight back to the pension. It took a while to extract ourselves from the owners' enquiries about our day, so we rushed down to the family bathroom for a quick dip as dinner time was fast approaching. Emily had filled up on toast and muffins so I wasn't surprised that she refused her tea, though it was still a bit stressful to see her shaking her head and pushing away the spoon.

I stayed in the room and put her to bed after a bottle, while Nick went on down to our booth for what was to be a huge fish-fest. The piece de resistance was a whole bream baked in a thick crust of salt.

It was very moist and tasty, but after so many other fish dishes, both cooked and raw, I really struggled to do it justice.

I can't believe they can make any profit if they always provide so much food. Just when I thought it was all over they brought out a 'bonus' dish: a small deep-fried whole: head, fins and all. I munched a bit of its crunchy body but baulked at the peripheral parts. Finally, we were free to go, and collapsed in the lounge to digest some of the massive meal before bedtime.