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Other entries in Shimoda

Return to Shimoda

I'm rooted to my futon this morning and it takes all of Tomoko's best efforts to finally dislodge me. After a quick dip in the onsen and a breakfast of convenience store food, we're off back to Shimoda. It's already started to rain in Matsuzaki by the time we leave. The typhoon is catching up with us, but so far we've been lucky.

At Shimoda we head to Ryosen-ji, the temple where Perry signed one of the original treaties with Japan, way back in 1854. There's an attached museum that turns out to be the highlight of the trip (for me at least), full of historical documents, portraits of Perry and his crew by Japanese artists at the time, and the corresponding views from the American side. Seemingly unrelated, there's another room to the museum that contains an incredibly odd display of sex in religious artwork and myth. Large phallic rocks and statues that people apparently openly prayed to, copulating Buddhist deities, head-scratchingly strange works of artwork, all this and more.

It's beginning to rain, and Tomoko wants to be home before 6. We stop for a set lunch of Ton-katsu (fried pork) that's too big for either one of us to finish, then it's back on the train. We manage to grab a seat in the very front of the train, and from the over-sized windows of the train, it feels as if we're riding home on a roller-coaster. The wind and rain howls around us, mother nature nipping at our heels. But we've beaten her this time and finished our trip before the typhoon struck.

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