At a Rest Stop

Look at the size of this camper. It is really compact.

This is a loud speaker. It is probably used for emergency announcements.

Big Sister took this picture of the reflection in our car. She wanted to see if it would work. It did!

On the Way Home

This was the fence in front of our car in the parking lot near the thatched roof house we visited.


This screen was outside the thatched roof house.




An ice cream stand in the small town down the street from the thatched house we visited.



This is a vending machine at a rest stop on our way. For 100 yen, a small toy in a plastic ball rolls down this spiral path. I have never seen one like this. We didn't watch it in action, but it looks cool.




These are wind generators on a high hill.




At a rest stop along the way, there was a case of ropes with a story. A neighboring ruler had told the residents of the area that he would not attack them if they could make a rope out of ashes. People in the area recently tried to make one and came up with this and two others.

Another Stop Along the Way

This is the welcome table at the entrance of a rest stop along our way. On the wall is a device that is used for people who are having heart trouble or a heart attack.




Each area has its specialities and each rest stop sells them as souvenirs. Each item has the name of the place printed on its packaging. There are boxes of cakes and cookies neatly wrapped. This is a small rest stop so the selection is not very big.



This is a local sweet wrapped in a dried leaf. This picture was taken at a food stall like the one in yesterday's post. These sweets were sold individually. Later on our trip I saw these at a grocery store. They were all tied together and sold as a bunch.

Peel away the dried leaf and you find a green mochi, glutinous rice, with anko, sweet adzuki bean paste, inside. Yummy.




At rest stops along the highway and at some tourist attractions, you can use a complimentary stamp in your own notebook or a souvenir stamp book. It looks like a lot of people practiced here before stamping their books.




There is no charge for using the stamp. It's a nice souvenir and collection. We usually go back to Texas in the summers and rarely travel in Japan by car so we haven't done this.

On the Way

We went through the city to get to the highway. I'll show some of those city scenes at another time. Some stretches of highway have blinders along the sides as it moves through residential and urban areas. The sky looks dark and ominous, but we didn't run into much rain. (Actually there was a lot of talk about a typhoon blowing in, but it never reached us or Tokyo.)




There are rest stops along the highway. Here is one that has booths or stalls that sell food.




This booth sells fried noodles, soba, octopus balls...




and frozen cucumbers on sticks among other things. I was looking at and taking a picture of the frozen cucumbers when the guys who were making octopus balls started putting on a show and posing.




This picture was a little unexpected gift! I didn't even have to ask. I guess many tourists pass this way who want a picture. Note the man in the back is doing the peace sign. A lot of people here do that when they are having their picture taken. I'll try to get pictures of the whole process of making octopus balls at another time. We had to get on the road again.