Japan finale

Nara is where I left off, right? (Kirk, aren't you proud of me for finishing my blog finally?) Well, let me conclude the trip by saying a couple things about the last few days. After Nara I swung by Okayama on the way home. Nice castle, and the gardens are some of the best in Japan. Slightly wrong time of year to see many of the flowers in bloom, but the landscaping itself was quite pretty.

I returned to Kasaoka to find Heather where i thought she would be. On the couch with her ankle elevated and watching movies with Barry. Must have been a rough couple of days for her. We did manage to convince her to go to Miajima with Brian and I. By this time she had a rented wheelchair to make the bigger trips easier. Miajima is the famous island that has a large red gate just off the shore. When the tide is in, the entire gate and nearby temple is surrounded by water. When the tide is out, you can walk right up to the massive structure and check out all the little barnacles latched onto the side. As a side note, unlike America Japan is NOT meant for anyone with limited movement to travel easily. In the train stations, we were lucky to find an elevator at all and most of the time it was the frieght elevator all the way in the back corner. At one point Heather had to get up and use her crutches up the stairs. I guess they assume anyone in a wheelchair is just going to stay at home for the rest of their life. Sad really.
So back to the island. We helped Heather get up the mountainside to the (slightly expensive) gondola that would whisk us to the tip top of the mountain where there were awesome views and
monkeys running amuck.