Kushimoto

We only had two nights in Kushimoto and left on Tuesday morning. The cold front had passed over and we now had a high sitting over us, which provided us with the most glorious weather. Well with no wind, not so good for sailing, but I was more than happy with it.

I was still feeling pretty exhausted so Dean had gone ashore alone the day before to take a look and pick up some fresh supplies. God love Japanese “takeaway/fast food” because we sure do. As usual Dean’s eyes were bigger than his belly and it was enough for lunch and dinner. So with cheap Japanese beer that still tastes good, we had a feast.

The town was a sleepy Japanese fishing village.

A prominent feature are the tsunami walls.

There are signs where to go to evacuate, including tall buildings.

And he climbed up to an evacuation point on a hill and found this interesting thing. A concrete tree trunk with a door in it. Yep you guessed it, a toilet!

While Dean was onshore, Run to Paradise remained happily at anchor in the bay with me onboard.

That evening we watched the sun sink in the sky, then we quickly shut ourselves downstairs to conserve our heat.

The morning we up anchored, the bright sunshine allowed us to see the sandy sea floor through crystal clear green water. We could see the ripples on the sand and the anchor chain leading out from the boat.

The harbour itself has been a wonderful refuge. You could easily arrive after dark, and we were able to tuck ourselves in with only 3m under our keel. Before we left we had a little explore and went into the village harbour. Fishing and dive boats were tied up to jetty’s. There was lots of buoys indicating nets or aquaculture along the shore. It was really pretty and very protected. In the photo below you can see the buoys in the water showing where the aqauaculture farm is, and behind more tsunami walls lining the shore.

Jagged rocks extended out from shore and people were fishing off them and cormorants sunning themselves. We passed another small cargo boat at anchor, a different one to when we arrived. I could also see a man in a tiny row boat fishing. He had a flag sticking up like you would on a mobility scooter for visibility. The waters definitely aren’t fished out and we saw many fish jumping in the bay.