I wanted to do something special for the last day in Japan. The others were feeling pretty burnt out, so I decided to embark on one last solo adventure to Inaga seaside park, on the small chance I might be able to see Mt Fuji from the shore, which google maps implied was possible.
And if not; walking along the beach sounded thoroughly pleasant to my poor battered feet.
With melon soda in hand, it was time to sally fourth!
I arrived at Keisei-Inage Station, and grabbed some fried goodies for lunch. There was a park nearby, so I decided to walk there to find a place to eat. On the way, I passed through a lovely street lined with various shrines.
It turned out, that the street was not actually on the way to the park, so after backtracking a bit, I found the actual route through another side street.
Once I arrived, I found a place to sit and eat lunch. While there, I got to experience the magical ketchup and mustard simultaneous dispenser technology (picture not mine)
After eating under the watchful gaze of a multitude of extremely loud birds, I made my way through the rest of the park, and more back streets to a bus station, which would take me to the seaside park.
This part was definitely a bit more sketchy. I had to wait for quite awhile for the right bus to arrive, and then on the way there it took a different route than google maps was indicating it should, but it did get me to where I needed to go.
I knew the theoretical views of Mt Fuji from the beach were not expected until sunset, so I made an impulse stop at the random botanical gardens.
MOSS! but the no touching sign felt like it was directed specifically at me.
They had a couple pseudo art installations, with weird flower arrangements, mirrors, and music.
The star of the show was the indoor garden area, which was small but cozy.
And then I came to... some stairs... (Alena will get this reference)
The botanical gardens didn't take as much time as I was expecting, so I continued on a tour of the seaside park.
Once I got to the beach, I was greeted with a distinct lack of Mt Fuji. No worries, it might be visible from somewhere else, so I decided to stick to the original plan of walking barefoot along the beach.
I didn't really want to leave my shoes, so I tied them to my camera bag. I'm sure I looked extremely goofy, but by this point I had decided I was ok with being a bit of a public nuisance (my feet really hurt).
While the cool water was nice, the beach was also a lot sharper than I was expecting, so it ultimately I was just trading one kind of pain for another.
I am still glad I did it, though. Walking barefoot has a way of making you feel much more connected to a place, and I think this is something I will never forget. Especially the sharp rocks.
I thought that maybe I could get a glimpse of Fuji through my zoom lens, but alas no luck.
After walking a good distance, I saw that ahead of me there was a group taking wedding photos on the beach, so I decided it was time to call it quits.
Sadly, I had not found anything resembling a wash station, so I had to just sit on the side of the main path sadly brushing the sand off of my feet with napkins. Not my best moment.
It wasn't quite time for dinner, so I decided to just find somewhere out of the way to sit and rest for awhile, to give my feet a break.
I found a nice secluded area with some be benches.
After resting awhile, I did walk a bit further to the end of the park in the naive hope that Fuji would be visible from the pier at the end, but it was not to be. I was feeling rather dejected at this point. I couldn't even befriend a crow 😦.
I ended up just returning to my resting spot from earlier.
I eventually grew bored, and revisited the little lake from earlier. I never found the source of the banjos though.
I did find some more crows, who seemed a bit more amenable to my presence.
As the sun set on my fleeting crow encounter, I headed back to the beach to grab some dinner from one of the food trucks that was setting up.
Wagyu Yakisoba. Don't mind if I do.
The Yakisoba was delicious, and since there was no one else there, the guy running the food truck gave me permission to sit in one of the chairs that you apparently normally have to rent out as a party space. So that was nice.
After finishing my food, I walked back to the beach for one last look before heading home
But as I gazed out to see, I noticed something that was not visible before.
That's right. Mt Fuji had made an appearance after all.
Turns out, the mountain is only visible in the evening, as a silhouette behind the setting sun. I probably would have known this if I had read a little more.
It was only on a whim that I had gone back to look at the sunset from the beach; I was planning on leaving right after. So the fact that I got to see it was pretty much just down to luck.
Now that I knew the real show was just getting started, I stuck around to take more pictures as the sun set.
There was a pier where several others had set up cameras for the same purpose, so I joined in.
I think these were the best shots I got. Zoom lens my beloved.
While taking pictures, I ended up chatting a bit with a rather colorful character. He was impressed by the pictures I was taking. I also showed him the crows from earlier, and then he gave me some kind of packaged food item that I couldn't identify, telling me it was "Crow Food". I have no idea if it was just a regular bread product that the crows could eat, or actual crow food.
He also kept telling me to wait, presumably because the view would get even better, so of course I did. He then wandered off at some point to talk to some other people, and that was the last I spoke to him. I still have no idea what exactly I was waiting for.
I eventually went back down to the beach to take some more artful photos. I feel like some of these I sell as prints.
I could not have asked for a better conclusion to this Japanese adventure. From this trip, I gained so much confidence in my ability to plan and get around new places. I cannot wait until I have another opportunity to put it to the test once again.
As I made my way back to the bus stop to start my journey back, I got to watch as the bus I was supposed to take pulled away without me.
There was another later, but way to fumble on the final stretch.