Day 14 Thurs. 15th Oct, The Port of Sakaiminato City, Strolling the Street with the Yokai

We arrived in the port of Sakaiminato around 7am and as we hadn’t booked an excursion for this town, we had a relaxing breakfast before deciding to take the shuttle bus into the main street of this small, fishing hub. The town is also famous for being the hometown of “manga” artist, Shigeru Mizuki. This artist resurrected the yokai (ancient Japanese folklore spirits) to modern pop culture. The main street of this tiny town is lined with 177 bronze yokai statues, and even the streetlights, public seating and shops are themed around the yokai. The stroll down the street was delightful. The modern images of the yokai have become famous, being portrayed in movies and cartoons and various video games and animations. You could buy so many products toys, games, t-shirts and even food with yokai portrayed on them. This tiny coastal town only has only one set of traffic lights and the entire time we were walking we may have only seen about 5 or 6 vehicles. Most of the people wandering the streets were passengers from our ship. It must be such a bonus for the small businesses when a cruise ship comes in, as normally many of the shops would not be open. Both the ports of Sakaiminato and Tsuruga would only be able to cope with one large ship at a time. Our ship was the only ship visiting and this meant that the infrastructure put in place for tourists wasn’t overwhelmed. In perfect weather, we enjoyed our 2km walk along the quiet main street, checking out some of the 177 statues as well as stopping for some shopping. Following this, we took the shuttle bus back to the ship where we had to go through immigration because we are leaving Japan this afternoon and heading for Busan in South Korea, arriving tomorrow morning.  We are enjoying the delicious meals and eating far too much! The ship is so large you can always find a quiet spot and there is plenty to do if you’re that way inclined. The entertainment had been excellent, and we are looking forward to another theatre show tonight being performed by the young woman who did the Queen show, earlier and her partner from Sydney. He put on an exceptional show a couple of nights ago as not only can he sing, but he also plays both the piano and the saxophone.