Going Home Eve

(Ben's farewell from his Island school, he held streamers that flew out as the boat left the dock.)

Good bye Japan!

Its really our last day here! It's hard to believe this day has come, and that everything I put off for today has to get done. ug. The final dusting/wipe down/mopping the floor/getting our suitcase situation sorted out.

But Tomorrow....!!!!... I'm so excited to see our families.

This past weekend we tried to take in some of our favourite things. Saturday after cleaning and packing some more we wanted to beat the heat, so we played pool for a while in an airconditioned amusement place, then went for some (cold) sushi at our favourite sushi place, then went for cake at our favourite cafe.

Sunday we took off and drove to the Iya valley, (about a 3 hour ride). The drive is through the river valley that takes you into central Tokushima Prefecture, along the 'famous' oboke and koboke "treacherous ravines". We went to find this little museum, and we found it, but not what we expected. What we found was a tunnel through the hill, that led to parking, and caged animals on the other side-a wild boar, a few monkeys and a rabbit. then back through the tunnel half way, there were cave rooms dug out. One large room had a big golden buddah and a bunch of smaller buddah statues. The other side had this weird heaven and hell with their 'obi' or devil-like god, and manequines in hell.. very disterbing, and not really what we had expected. What made it stranger was because it was cool in the cave, everything was damp and falling apart. Chalk that one up for a strange and disterbing Japanese experience.

After that we went for one more onsen, and then took time to enjoy the masage chairs. Then back to Tokushima City for one more mexican experience at Dave's Sombraros Taco Hut. Then, as if to make the day perfect, there were fireworks close by at a festival, so we went to see them, and with a bang and bright lights we ended our last weekend in Japan.