The hotel had a spa.
There were multiple mixed-gender dry saunas.
Nobody else was in them.
A sleeping room. There were also wet saunas with pools of multiple different temperatures, although those were separated by gender.
They don't want tattoos showing in the spas, but they have stickers you can cover your tattoos with.
Different shampoos.
A cherry blossom tree.
Where you can add leaves.
With positive thoughts.
Many already there.
A mini convenience store with no employees.
Our room was no smoking, but we could definitely smell smoke.
Thankfully it was only in the bathroom, maybe coming through this vent somehow. We couldn't smell it in the bedroom.
There was a buffet breakfast in the morning.
They had many different items.
Freshly cooked.
Sauces.
French toast and eggs.
The plates have separate areas for each item.
We've seen a few public pianos now that are available to play.
A cute logo with a mother and baby cat.
Putting our stuff in a coin locker for the day.
It costs 500 yen but doesn't take a 500-yen coin.
Thankfully there's a change machine where you can get 100-yen coins.
A manhole cover with birds.
A colored one.
With the castle.
There were many mini gardens and statues lining the sidewalk.
Most of the statues were of women.
And mostly nude.
The gardens had different flowers and designs.
More abstract.
More realistic.
Looking sideways.
Some owls.
With a hat.
A shachihoko, which is a fish statue used as an ornament on a roof to ward off fire and disaster.
Green.
Raccoon statue.
Two shachihokos.
Hand holding a cut-out ball.
A man.
We reached the bridge to the castle.
With us.
Huge front gate.
I wonder if you can sneak in by swimming through that tunnel.
There are many cherry blossom trees.
Framing it.
It's built up quite high.
More trees along on the walk to the castle.
A second entrance.
A helpful map.
The entire castle surrounded by a moat.
They had many wells in case they were surrounded.
We walked up a few steps.
To a walkway in the outer wall.
Looking out a window.
There were multiple levels.
Nice view of trees and bushes.
We're getting closer.
A view of the city.
Old clothing.
Another view of the castle.
Another entrance.
And we're here.
Through one more huge door.
Inside the first floor.
Looking out.
There are multiple levels.
With steps up to the next one.
Lookng down a bit.
Multiple windows.
The next level.
And up to the next.
At the top.
With a nice view.
From another side.
And another.
And another.
Ogii ringing a prayer bell.
Headed back down. I almost hit my head; it's not designed for tall people.
Weapons.
Historical items.
The city.
Outside again.
Ogii smelling the cherry blossoms.
Along a wall.
More statues on the other side of the street on the walk back to the train station.
Another.
Neat-looking building.
With it's own sculpture at the entrance.
A standing woman.
A sitting one.
Gundam manhole cover.
There were multiple side streets with many shops.
This one was Lucky Street.
With restaurants.
And shops.
And services.
More statues back on the street.
Standing.
Sitting.
Finally a naked guy.
I wonder if Burger King in the US has this burger or something like it.
We were planning on shopping for gifts in Osaka, but the train station here had a mall with multiple levels with all of the stores we wanted.
First at a children's store.
Then to Hands.
For these Green Bell nail clippers, which are supposed to be really good, for my coworkers.
We still had a lot of yen bills, so we used most of them up here. Probably better than losing money exchaning them into US dollars.
Then to Uniqlo.
For AIRism and HeatTech clothes for Ogii's family.
Finally a bookstores.
For some manga.
Ogii fit everything into two bags so we wouldn't have to check any.
Someone left some boba here. I never got around to buying any on this trip; maybe next time.
Perfect time for my T-Mobile free international data to be done. It seems to last right around a week if I mostly use it for Google Maps when walking around and use wifi in the hotels.
Down to our train.
For the one to the airport.
This was a Hello Kitty train.
Even decorations inside.
A cute cat mural.
At the airport.
Have to walk through all of the duty free shops first.
A neat Bulgari purse.
I had looked up two lounges that we could use with our Priority Pass. The reviews said the Kongo one to the south was better, so we walked down there.
It was quite a ways, a 15-minute walk. And then when we got there, we found out it had closed not even two weeks ago. Now there were only lounges right in the middle.
And the only lounge we could use was this Nodoka one.
Which is actually before security, not after.
It looks nice, but there's no way I'm waiting there before security; that's way to risky.
So now the long walk back to the central area.
Almost all of these gates were empty, which was a bit creepy.
At least we saw a nice sunset on the way.
I wonder if there's any way we can get into this lounge.
Nope; it's only for credit cards issued in Japan.
And the food options are very poor here.
A sandwich and pizza.
Which I had to heat up myself in this microwave there.
Frost on the airplane window.
Almost home.
Ogii organized all of the gifts we bought for coworkers and family.
Up early the next day for our beach yoga, helpful after the long flight.
A huge mural by the brewery.
Another with may signs.
At Umeke's with our anniversary t-shirts: "11 years later and we're still a great pear."
I didn't get any boba in Japan, but Island Time Boba Cafe in Kona has some.
Pretty tables, too, with the mix of acrylic and wood.
Another one.
And pictures of a sea turtle and the islands.
The old doc is back in Scrubs for a bit.
Some anniversary cards for each other.
There was a little festival.
With vendors.
And live music.
For dinner we went to Tropics Tap House.
For steak.
And pasta.
And brought it home to watch My Cousin Vinny.
A little gecko watching us watch the movie.
Beautiful sunset.
With the sun peeking beneath the clouds.