I woke up early this morning, and went on a whale watching. In the Kochi sea were about 50 whales and dolphins, and you have a good chance to see them.

Riding with anticipation.

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You will find this restaurant after walking for a few minutes along Roppongi Street from Shibuya. Their cuisine is categorized as New Japanese.

Inside the restaurant is dim and calm. There are many counter seats but only three private rooms. It seems that customers can enjoy food and talk to the master or other chefs.

This time I ordered a course meal. In addition to their cuisine, Shokkan offers many different types of alcohol: beers, sake, shochu (Japanese spirits distilled from potatoes, rice, etc), wines, cocktails, and so on.

Here’s the salad. You eat the vegetables with their original tomato miso. They offer unique vegetables so that you can enjoy a variety of flavor. The tomato miso has a good balance of sourness and saltiness, something that you would want to keep tasting even after you’re done with the salad.

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The Fourth day of my stay in Shikoku, I’ve been half way through my trip. I stayed in Anan as the day before. It had been a very hot week since I arrived in Shikoku, so I decided to go swimming.

This is Kitanowaki beach near the Anan station. This place is also famous for sea turtles like the Ohama coast.

Full of family groups because it was a holiday.

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After two hours of drive, I arrived at the two rivers, Yoshino and Iyagawa, which in these days are popular for rafting and canoeing. The Yoshino River has ravines with unique names, Oboke and Koboke, meaning it is dangerous to take either long steps or small steps to cross the river.

Riding on an excursion ship to enjoy the scenery.

Oboke is actually one of the three biggest out-of-the-way places in Japan. With metamorphic sandstone’s surface weathering, thick earth layers were molded into a wavy shape and cracks made a way for water to encroach them, creating a unique geographical environment.

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Shinsaibashi is a main shopping area in Osaka.

Shinsaibashi is a main shopping area in Osaka.

In the city of Asakusa, there are still many businesses which handle traditional Japanese goods. We visited Wakuda Shouten to see how some of these goods are made and sent out to consumers. Wakuda Shouten is a zori (Japanese slippers usually worn with kimono) company which began soon after the war ended in Japan. The company continues to produce high quality handmade zori with the help of experts in different areas.

The making of a traditional zori slipper requires a lot of work and effort. There are specialists for each step in the whole process, and Wakuda Shouten works with these specialized companies to produce the products. First, after they have received an order from a customer, the company selects and buys the materials which are to be used for the zori. Wakuda Shouten only uses real cow leather for their products.

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