Kanaya and the Ferry

Sunday was another beautiful day so I scrounged up a plan to see more of Japan. We drove south about 20 minutes to Kurihama...this is the port that Commodre Perry landed in many moons ago to open up the country to the rest of the world. From here, we hopped on a ferry to Kanaya which is about 40 minutes via ferry.

Once we arrived we walked to the rope way which would take us to the top of the beautiful mountains. It was here that we could experience the easter wilderness of the Boxo peninsula and discover Nihonji Temple, the thousands of statues scattered in the mountain, and it's Daibutsu, the biggest Buddha statue in Japan. This hike took about 90 minutes from the rope way around the old temple area to see the different statues and buddha carvings.

One of the beautiful hiking maps you find in Japan. So very helpful.

The rope way up.

The beach view from the top!

 This view is called the View from Hell. We hiked up there and stood out on the outcropping. It wasn't that scary:).

 Another map at the Daibutsu showing all of the things to see at the top of the mountain before you head back down.

 Dax pointed to some green grass and said, "Mom, a wide open space!" meaning that he needed to run even after the climbing/hiking. So they played some hide and go seek and played with a little Japanese 2 year old.

We decided to hike down from the top to the ocean/beach instead of doing the rope way back down.  I read online not to hike because it would take too long. It was another 40ish minutes but so much better than a rope way.....at least for this family. I'd definitely recommend the hike down the main entrance way.

Our kids collected things on the beach and built a house. This is a dried fish that was washed up on shore and fried in the sun on a plate with chopsticks in the kitchen part of the house. They even found some packing foam for a bed. We love it when they work together like this. They truly enjoyed each other.

I finally pulled them away from the beach to eat as I was starving and it was almost 4.

The train station was open air with a  beautiful view of the mountains. It is such a quiet place that the train only come every 30 minutes.

We went to this sushi place by the fish market at the pier. The sushi was amazing. Holly tried her first tuna rolls and loved them. Matt said the salmon was amazing.

We went into the fish market before getting back on the ferry. It was an extravaganza of useless things and food. Holly/Cady both bought a mikan (clementine) stuffed animal to clip to their backpack. They had some cute Halloween themed breads and pastries as well. 

And last but not least was Super Peanut and his fearless friend Peanut Cat. We aren't sure why they existed but of course our kids thought they needed one. They were selling peanuts in this little section with peanut products so we assume that they made up a mascot. 

It was another fantastic and beautiful day in Japan. I wish we were there a few weeks later so we could experience the autumn leaves.