During the second week we went on a day-long excursion up the Noto peninsula. We visited a lot of places, including the Chrihama beach driveway, Ganmon rock formation, a hot spring and ryokan, a Shinto shrine, a Buddhist temple, and a lacquerware shop. It was a busy day, but very very fun.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Ganmon rock formation from the hill above |
Same photo, with some bus window for reference |
Waterfall |
The caves, a bit closer this time |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| View of the beach |
Another view of the cave |
Really dramatic rock formations |
Really clear water |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Frances and Sandra... don't fall in! |
Yasuko leads the way out of the cave |
Eeeeeuuugh! I hate jellyfish! |
A bridge between lava rock formations |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| More volcanic rock |
It's weird pose time! Leslie mugs, Frances licks Leslie (?), Sandra makes an undescribable gesture |
Another shot of volcanic rock beach |
Lots of climbing to do afterwards |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A beautiful view of the volcanic beach from a bridge above |
...I took a photo of some trees... |
Frances and I strike an awesome pose by the even more awesome Japanese squid |
Frances gives the "wtf" look |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Frances makes what may be the cutest monkey face in all of human history |
Mountainside? Or the world's largest waffle? |
These two cliffs were a very large shrine |
Wow, this is almost a panorama... almost... |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| I think the kanji means "Watch for falling waffles" |
I tried to get some shots of the countryside, but we were moving too fast to shoot anything all that interesting |
Paper decorations hang in the ryokan |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Traditional Japanese hotel room |
Photo from inside the ryokan |
Frances seems a bit dazed after her onsen bath |
Make that *really* dazed |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A lacquer workshop at Wajima |
I had to get a photo of this t-shirt |
Some of the really beautiful lacquer images |
Can you believe this is origami?! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Giant lacquer harp... it was marked down from 5 million yen to 2.8 million |
Sandra makes a goofy face |
Outside of Sojiji temple |
The scroll house at Sojiji |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| I think some smart-ass tourist damaged this guy's left hand... what a shame |
Leslie turns the scroll case -- she has gained the knowledge of all the sutras |
The gate before entering the temple |
A tower... |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Joy admires the architecture |
Some shots inside the courtyard of Sojiji temple |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| More of the courtyard of Sojiji |
I can't believe I got Yasuko to make this face! |
In front of one of the buildings |
Inside that building |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The entire area was a beautiful garden |
Another really nice building |
Another interior meditation chamber |
Another building |
 |
 |
| Another buddha |
Ah! My precious monkey candies (which I gave to my host family) |
