After a bit of a sleep in, we made our way down to <…>. There we witnessed a “coming of age” ritual that happens once a year, for 20 year old men (and the occasional woman). These people were in the cold water, carrying a <….> on their shoulders, jumping up and down and chanting away. The <….> weighed a ton, and there were roughly 15-20 men carrying each. Occasionally we would see somebody who had had enough come out of the water. Their shoulders were red and swollen from the massive weight they had been bouncing around.

Once this ritual was finished, they carried the <….> out of the water and on to the beach, where they continued to hold it – it was not allowed to touch the ground! We then were treated to a performance on the Japanese drums. There would have been about 15 of them, being played by a local group.

We then walked across the bridge to the island of <….>. We walked around the island, and made our way to the top, where there were more temples. A “street performer” in the grounds had a pet monkey, and they put on a fantastic show for us. Then it was in to the caves for some exploring. The tunnels (apparently) go all the way through to Mount Fuji!

We had done several hundred steps for the day, and my bag was getting heavy, so we caught a ferry back to the main land from the far side of the island (which is where we were), rather than walk all the way back. The next task was lunch, which was had at a nice little store, at about 3.00 in the afternoon.

After lunch we went to the supermarket to get food for dinner. We went back to Kaoru’s flat, and she cooked while I got some work done.