We had a day at sea and then we docked in Sakaiminato, which is a cool town in its own right, but we had an excursion booked farther inland. It started with a visit to the Adachi Museum which was FANTASTIC. The founder of the museum was originally from the area, and he wanted to make something special that would bring tourism and revenue to the area. Boy did he outdo himself. When you first get to the museum, you see the gardens. You can't walk in them, but you can admire them.
Our tour guide told us they wash the stones once a year to keep them the same color. Every morning, caretakers come out and clean up any stray leaves. There's even a live cam on YouTube where you can watch the garden. It's living art, and it is incredible. Pictures do not do it justice. The art gallery inside is also wonderful. You're not allowed to take pictures, but their website has a lot of the artwork.
The first exhibit was children's art, and we all liked the painting "Book Club" by Takei Takeo.
They also had a really fun exhibit looking for small motifs, so there would be a picture next to a painting asking if you could find a particular bird or insect in the larger painting. We all really enjoyed that. It is definitely a place I would go back to.
After the museum, they took our tour group to lunch at a barbecue restaurant. We had a lot of fun cooking up our own food.
The restaurant was very close to a dock for canal boats. The town has a network of canals all around the castle, and our post lunch activity was a boat ride.
We got pretty tickets, and then got on our boats.
We took off our shoes and sat on the floor of the boat, which was covered in tatami mats. The roof could go up and down to allow us to fit under all the bridges across the canal. Vivian was more than ready to lay down.
The boat fit easily under a lot of the bridges.
But when we got to some of the older ones, our driver, who didn't speak much English, would gesture and tell us, down, down! So we would lay down and the roof would come down as well.
The kids thought it was great, but there was definitely some flexibility involved. When we weren't ducking down, it was a lovely ride. The canals were tranquil and lined with flowers and wildlife.
Eventually, we circled back around to where we had started and thanked our boat driver for a lovely time. Then, we got back on the tour bus and drove up to the castle that we had been circling around in the water. Jeff immediately noticed the manhole covers.
There was also a statue of the man who commissioned the building of the castle. It was never actually tested in a battle, which is part of why it's in such good condition today.
By this point, we had been on the ship long enough to know people who were happy to volunteer to take our picture.
Jeff and Elena, our ambitious duo, climbed all the way to the top of the castle and a shipmate took a picture of them with the view.
There wasn't much inside the castle itself, and after exploring the grounds a bit, we headed back down to our bus.
It was a full day, and we were happy to head to our table for dinner. After dinner, the girls went to the kids club, and Jeff and I went to the bar we had settled on as our favorite. The servers were all friendly, the seats were comfortable, and our new favorite violin duo played there every night. It was a great end to a great day.
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