The Tropics of Japan

[I'm in the middle of my trip to Japan, check back soon for earlier/later posts.]

We spent the night at a cafe/hotel in a pretty remote part of Wakayama. The owner is definitely a motorcycle enthusiast, and there are several other references to American culture. (And Irish, because of the beer.)

Back to the road.

We stopped to see an interesting rock-based landmark.

It really reminds me of digital art representations of water-based planets in science fiction. Very cool. As we were trying to photograph the rocks, we saw tons and tons of fish in the bay. Flocking behaviour...

This was not where you'd expect to find fish, just some shallow water with rocks against the shore. Pretty, but barren.

We explored a bit and found out that there is an aquarium nearby. It was open, although this is winter, and it had a glass-bottomed boat that goes into the harbor and shows you the fish! Perfect. I had a bit of trouble fitting into the boat but all's well. It's a great view.

I had no idea, but this area is basically subtropical, with coral reefs and tons of fish.

We even had a special surprise!

Back to shore. Someone was excited.

There is lots of dried coral on the beach. Fortunately, the coral in the water seemed pretty intact. I was worried since I know lots of coral is dying worldwide due to rising temperatures.

We had an amazing lunch,

and a long drive with lots of tolls (about $60!!)...

back to Kyoto.

In Kyoto, we saw the headquarters of Nintendo, with a beautiful rainbow that crossed 180 degrees of the sky. I lined it up to look like Nintendo is the pot of gold.

Yes, the sky really was that color.

After some food shenanigans in which we waited about 75 minutes for food that wasn't coming, we got on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. This is the day with the most traveling. Until next time.