We had a nearly non-existent itinerary for our holiday. Our plan for day two was to have some playtime down at the river, eat a couple of meals, and cap the day off with another onsen bath. We went down to the red bridge which is just down the road from the house and were surprised to see a monkey come out of the woods, cross the bridge, and then run up the hill on the other side of the road.

Once we’d had our fill of skipping stones and looking for flowers and bugs, we went for lunch at the onsen. It’s rather obvious when you think about it, but everyone at the onsen has such a pink, freshly-scrubbed look to them. We bought an ice cream bar for dessert and went for a walk around the park which is just out back of the onsen building. Oawa mountain, where a lot of the KAIR installations are, is back there too.

On the way back to Yamani House, we stopped by Matsuura Grocery and talked to Mrs Matsuura. We told her about the monkey we saw and she said that the black dog who hangs around Yamani House is there to keep the monkeys away. The Matsuura grocery store is the closest one to Yamani House, and it has quite a good selection for its small size. It seems they do a lot of home delivery as well as keeping a storefront. After we got back home, Sofie fell asleep and Tsutomu and I made dinner with the sashimi we got from Mrs. Matsuura. We left some to eat raw, used some in a soup, and fried some more. By the time Sofie woke up it was about 7pm and she gobbled up a bowl of soup right away. Then it was time to go for our nightly bath.