Shodoshima Island

The teachers from one of the schools Amanda and I teach at offered to take us on a trip on Sunday. We were excited to learn that this trip involved a ferry ride to Shodoshima Island, visiting the soy sauce museum, making a trip to the Twenty-Four Eyes film village, and going to a monkey park. Amanda and I got up earlier than normal (around 6:30am), biked to the train station and met up with about 7 teachers and 2 children to begin our adventure. Adventure is an understatement.

We drove to Okayama port to catch the ferry. The ferry ride was beautiful. It was exciting to be out on the water and traveling somewhere new.

Once the ferry docked we headed straight to the museum. Who know there was so much to learn about soy sauce. Apparently there are 5 different kinds, with different smells, different tastes, and for different purposes. We learned about the process from beginning to end and learned that the museum was also a factory. They make soy sauce & other soy products on the island, including soy ice cream (sounds so strange, huh?). Of course I tried it.

The inner workings of the soy sauce factory:

Adorable. Absolutely adorable.

Then we drove to the site of Twenty-Four Eyes. I still don't have the full story on Twenty-Four Eyes but I do know that it was an adaptation of a novel by Sakae Tsuboi, a female writer. The story is set during wartime and early postwar Japan and it centers on the relationship between a primary school teacher and the 12 island children in her first class, hence the title Twenty-Four Eyes. The movie focuses on the relationship between the rebellious teacher who believed in education during a time of war and her 12 children who survived hardship together. I think. I have to get the movie. It sounds brilliant, and slightly like myself, which is intriguing. The site was amazingly beautiful.

A statue dedicated to the teacher and her 24 students:

"The most moving story of a devoted female teacher and her twelve small pupils." or in my world - "The most moving, yet entertaining and complex story of a devoted, and often tired teacher and her fourteen wild pupils from Freeburg".

Feeding the fish for 100 yen.


Amanda and I taking a break in the boat. Not true - it was a lot of work to get in that unsteady, rickety old boat. & Getting out was worse!

The map off the Twenty-Four Eyes location.

We ate lunch at Twenty-Four eyes. True Japanese lunch - take the shoes off & sit on the floor. We ate cold noodles, which were very good. The noodles come in the wood bowl (drowning in water and ice cubes) and a cup of soy sauce comes on the side along with green onion and ginger. Using your chopsticks, of course, you pick up the noodles and dip them in the sauce and then loudly, if you so choose, slurp the noodles. This is common practice. I wonder if they wonder why I eat so quietly.

Then we ventured on to the monkey park. In theory, this sounds fantastic. Wild monkeys all around you in their true, natural setting. No cages or wire barricades dividing you and the adorable, intelligent animals. Not circus or zoo like. So humane. In reality, this is terrifying.

We trek up the side of a mountain (ok slight exaggeration, we walk on an uphill path) and see a few monkeys off in the distance as we go. Ohhh .... Ahhh .... Look!! All very safari-like. At a distance they're great.

Then we get closer and see that they are directly on the path. Right where we are supposed to walk. Completely unafraid and making no motion to move. We continue to walk and get really close. I feel slightly under attack.





We make it through & continue on towards the loud indescribable sounds. Kind of like a cat's meow. Kind of like a psychotic cat. And then all of a sudden there are literally hundreds of monkeys. Hundreds. I know I can exaggerate, but I'm not this time.

See. With one deer in the mix.Can you find the monkeys? They're everywhere! I think there are 12 in this photo:

Too close for comfort.
Especially when they look so crazy close up. How can you argue with that? This monkey looks crazy.


They are everywhere. Up high, down low, inside things like pipes and holes, jumping from fence post to fence post. The same post I'm leaning against! The noise is kind uncomforting. Like they are very angry at you. It was quite the experience. I now have a new perception of monkeys and I hope the next herd, school, troop, pack, whatever a group of monkeys is called, that I encounter is caged.
And in case you didn't think monkeys were crazy based on pictures alone, I have figured out how to add a video. I am no professional by any means (there are many sudden movements, horrible commentary, and all in all the video is NOT good), but I do have a short video. At least you can hear the monkeys & Amanda and I in panic.

Try clicking here - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1008535689277491772&pr=goog-sl

We drove back to the port. The scenery was beautiful. So many hills and mountains. The rock formations are amazing. Everything is so unlike Iowa.


We drove onto the ferry and headed home.


As much as I hate bridges, I managed to get this shot.
We ate dinner at a pasta house down the street from my apartment. It was amazingly good. Japanese style (no shoes, no chairs) but the spaghetti was great. Not grandma's, but it will do until Christmas.

much love
-tara-
xoxo