Miyazaki

I forgot to take a picture of the stamp sheet from the hells tour yesterday, so here it is!

The Kamado Jigoku had two different stamp stations! I wasn't warned about that, so the second stamp is just sort of shoved in there.

Here's the four of us in the car!

This morning in Miyazaki we headed over to Aoshima island to see the temple and the famous Devil's Washboard. Aoshima's island-headed mascot is pretty cute.

 Sunny beaches and palm trees here in the tropics.

 Here's the island. Aoshima temple is in the center, surrounded by all those trees.

 And here's the Devil's Washboard.

The water has scooped out the surface of the rocks. There are a lot of interesting textures that would make for a good painting.

 These ones with the many small holes would probably trigger someone's trypophobia.

Here's a picture of Michelle kicking me.

 And here's Aoshima temple.

 Here's where people tie their paper fortunes in the hopes that they will come true.

 Cool dragon.

 Here's a giant 5 yen coin for some reason.

The stone of strange.

 This place was really neat. A narrow path through the trees with ema prayerboards.

 Some of the prayers are pretty cute.

 Here's where you can buy clay dishes or scallop shells and try to throw them into the hole to have a wish come true or something. Shrines have become really commercialized these days.

Top ten unexpected anime crossovers

 Cute little oni statues.

 I saw this heart and just had to hang from it.

But it doesn't come to a point, so it's not really a heart, is it?

 Rock stacks, just like in good old Vancouver.

For lunch we had grilled mackerel and oysters.

 Then we visited a botanical garden. So tropical. It really stopped feeling like Japan for a while.

 Just look at this total non-Japan scenery.

 Look at this chubby Pikachu!

 Any fam. Any one at all.

We stopped by this place for gelato.

 This is blood orange, gianduia, and pistachio. Gelato also brings back fond memories of home.

 I think that plate in the middle is supposed to say "Break time", but that's really more of an "f".

Save our unagi.

 Here's Miyazaki shrine, the main shrine in the city.

 This was a nice looking tree.

 I'm actually very happy with this picture. It's going to be my next wallpaper.

 Big red gates.

 This tree was pretty gnarly.

One more hot spring to end the night. This one had an outdoor bath, which was very nice. The water was hot and the air was cold.