After returning from Okutama, the travel group was down to me, Phil, and Michael.
They had planned on going out to Yokosuka to visit the Mikasa Memorial Warship museum. I was actually feeling pretty well rested, and decided to tag along.
Mikasa is a WWII ship that has been fully grounded and turned into a museum. The tour started on the deck, which had some nice views of the surrounding terrain; especially of Sarushima, an old fort island. I had a small inkling to visit it, but I wasn't sure if there would be time.
The outside of the ship was under partial renovation, but there was still plenty to see.
There were 2 command areas, one in a special armored area.
Some great views from the front of the ship. There was a military base, and google maps said there was a McDonalds in the base, which we joked about trying to have lunch at.
I suspect the guns are no longer functional.
After we finished on the deck, it was time to go inside. The inside of the ship was basically completely renovated into a museum. They had a ton of model ships, which I am definitly a sucker for.
They also had some cool cutaway models of the Mikasa.
The fancy captains dinner area had some extra guns for good measure, and a nice balcony.
Some nice band paraphernalia.
And then there was the hallway that had models of basically every Japanese ship ever made made.
I sat for awhile to rest my feet, and ended up talking for a bit to a Japanese Navy veteran who was volunteering as a museum guide. He told some stories from his time serving on similar ships, which was really interesting, though also a tad uncomfortable. He seemed glad to have someone to talk to though so I toughed it out.
After we regrouped, we headed to a nearby cafe to get lunch. It was a charming place, but it turned out they didn't really have any food. Just tea and cake. Which was delicious.
After discussing plans, I decided I was going to try and visit Sarushima after all, while the others went back to Akihabara, so after the cafe we parted ways once again.
The dock where the ferry left for the island was right next to the cafe, so I was able to get tickets immediately and got on the boat without too much issue.
The trip was very smooth. The ferry was a fast and modern catamaran; the trip only took around 10 minutes.
The beach area was beautiful, but it was time to make my way into the island center to find those monkeys.
This island was used as a defensive fort during WWII, and now the ruins of what's left serve as a living museum.
Along the upper path, there were multiple places where large guns would have been mounted. (Yes, I crawled into a hole for that picture)
Continuing along, there were some great views from the top of the island. There was also an old tower that you couldn't go in.
More views in the other direction.
Spooky stairs; spooky hole.
There was a nice park area at the far side of the island, that also had some stairs down to the rocky shore where a couple people were fishing.
I sat on the rocks for awhile enjoying the dynamic movement of the waves, and taking lots of pictures to try and capture it.
Unfortunately, the rapid fire photography was too much for my DSLR, and it suddenly stopped being able to take pictures. The error message implied there was something wrong with the SD card, which was terrifying because I had a ton of pictures I had not yet backed up.
I decided there was nothing I could do about it then and so I put it away and continued on with my smartphone camera.
I don't want to know why this tunnel is called "The tunnel of love"
Moss
It was time to go, and so I made my way back to the dock area. I considered using the bathroom, but the toilet was the worst toilet I had seen anywhere in Japan, and also probably haunted, so I decided to skip it.
With my feet on solid ground once again, it was time for the adventure of making my way back alone. This was my second time navigating the Tokyo transit system on my own, and I felt a lot more confident this time.
But first, a long walk through downtown Yokosuka to get to the train station.
There were stations of this western saxaphone guy all over the place. I have no idea who it was or what his significance was, but he must have been mad good at sax.
I nabbed an express train back to central Tokyo, and one thing that really stuck out to me is how fast it was. Everyone always talks about the bullet train, but even regular commuter trains in Japan were no slouch.
At last, home sweet home!
I was curious what the others had been up to in the time I was gone, but it turned out they had gotten on a local train, and had only arrived back at the house less than an hour before. Wild how much of a difference being on the right train makes.
It was dinner time, and Michael had a restaurant he wanted to show me / go back to so we pulled ourselves together and went out once again.
It's so nice being able to just walk to things.
The thing they wanted to eat was a curry katsudon, which was absolutely incredible. The old couple running the hole in the wall place were also very fun, and seemed excited to be serving some Big Americans that could keep up with their portion sizes.
Yummers
I took the 20th as a rest day, so other than laundry and a nice long bath, I didn't really do much.
I took an evening excursion alone to go and get a tempura bowl from a local Keisei Tateishi restaurant we had passed before.
