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To celebrate Denise's 23rd birthday, we headed up north to Izumo and Matsue for the weekend. Matsue is the prefectural capital and largest city of Shimane. Izumo is home to two noteworthy sights, the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan and a giant onion that acts as the local sporting center.

Always the budget travelers, we had a brilliant cost-saving idea - sleep in the car and bathe at onsens, instead of shelling out precious yen for costly inns and ryokans. Luckily, there is no story about waking up at 3:00am to some pervert staring at us through the window with wide eyes and licking his lips all while rubbing his hands together vigorously (or, for that matter, rubbing something else vigorously!). Luckily, Denise never saw me do that or I'm sure I'd have scared the shit out of her.

To start things off, we made a romantic stop at the Izumo Taisha, an ancient shrine dedicated to Okuni Nushi no Mikoto, the God of Happy Marriages (and lord knows I need all the help I can get!). The grounds are huge, and some of the buildings are quite impressive, but the big draw is the historical and spiritual significance of the Shrine, rather than the buildings themselves. Every October, all eight million Shinto Gods gather here for their yearly wine & cheese sociable and your chance of getting a hotel room or parking space is probably impossible.

About 10 kilometers up the road is the Hino-misaki Lighthouse. I'm not sure if it's in use anymore, or what historical significance it once held, and I can't say as I care too much. But the drive there was to die for! Ten K's of the twistiest coastal road I've even driven. I spent the drive with my tongue sticking out and making race car noises.

We spent a good hour enjoying the scenery, and clambering over the rocks that the lighthouse sits on. We almost managed to get ourselves trapped on the rocks with no way out - we'd climb over the rocks only to discover that we couldn't get back the way we came. What we couldn't figure out is how the scores of fishermen managed to make their way to even more distant perches, tackle box and all. I can see the headline now:


"Aahhrrrr, so hirarious! Dey can't crimb rock, get stuck rike fish in net!"

As this blog entry will testify to, we survived the ordeal sans helicopter rescue or Japanese fisherman ridicule and decided to make haste into Matsue and get some dinner and find a place to park the car for the night.

After dinner, we thought about hitting up an onsen, and our guidebook said that there are many in the downtown area. Long story short, we spent well over half-an-hour trying to find the Matsue Onsen, which turned out to be a wading pool outside the front doors of the local train station. After much cursing and promising to return in the wee hours of the morning for a pee, we discovered another onsen area a little ways away. At the Tamatsukuri Hot Springs we had a good cleanin' then walked the roadside canal taking pictures and enjoying the perfect evening weather.

Sunday's weather was just as gorgeous, and we felt surprisingly refreshed after sleeping in the car along the shores of Lake Shinji despite an early morning wake-up call of firecrackers. After breakfast we made our way to Matsue's Castle district and jumped aboard the Horikawa Pleasure Boat Tour. I can't think of a better way to spend a beautiful Sunday morning with my wife than on a boat afloat in a moat, followed by a jaunt around Matsue-jo, the only remaining castle in the San-In region (untouched by war, not to mention).

We ended our weekend in Matsue enjoying lunch on the shore of Lake Shinji, all the while watching hawks soar overhead and some chick getting dumped by her boyfriend. Denise and I sat and watched for some time, wondering what her could possibly be saying to her:

"It's not me...it's you!"
"I'm sorry, you're not the woman I picture raising my children, cooking my meals, and doing my laundry for the rest of my life."

After much debate (and laughter), we thought it best not to go frolicking in front of them, holding hands and making kissy faces. Instead we made a quick stop at the Shimane Winery before completing the 3-hour drive back home to Masuda in our newfound pint-sized motorhome.

Camille & Denise

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