Unfortunately as enough people were already staring at me I wasn`t game to take a photo of my food.
I ate onigiri (rice ball things), miso soup and assorted pickled things. It was all delicious.
I took the bus, which was great as I got to see Atami properly. The foreshore is very beautiful and I can see why it is such a popular destination in Summer.
--- Atami foreshore ---
I then went to a Geisha house and saw some traditional dancing, complete with Shamisen players, drummers and a very very old lady singing. It was a completely amazing experience. I was given green tea and little mochi sweet cakes to eat while sitting on the floor to watch which really completed the whole `out-of-this-world` nature of the experience. I was also the only person there under 65.
--- Geisha/Maiko dancing ---
--- Me with one of the Maiko ---
After the dancing I headed for the next attraction, a cable-car or `rope-way` as they seem to be called in Japan. The view was amazing!
--- Amazing view of Atami ---
--- Remember, you don`t want to hurt their feelings ---
At the top I asked the ticket lady to take my photo, assuming she would get the lovely scenery in the background. After she freaked out because the flash wasn`t on (I had to turn it on before she would even ATTEMPT a photo) she took what is possibly the worst photo ever.
--- Scenery you say? Oh yes I see it now ---
There was a castle on the top of the cliffs that looked pretty spectacular from afar. Up close it was a little worse for wear. Inside there were some interesting samurai armour, various scale models of famous castles, traditional paintings, and the seemingly obligatory amusement section complete with table-tennis tables, car racing games and pinball machines. Needless to say the latter section was by far the most popular.
--- Outside the castle ---
At this point I decided to try for a little more `calming` experience and took the bus to Atami Baien, which was billed as a `blossom park`. I expected a small area with a few trees and some grass. In actual fact it was a huge area high up in the mountains with hundreds of blossom trees, a waterfall, a river, at least 2 different museums, a restaurant and about 30 different gift stalls. there were also a LOT of people there. Far more than I had seen anywhere else in Atami, actually aside from the amusement section of the castle and the geisha show I had hardly seen anyone.
The park was really really beautiful. I could show 50 photos of how wonderful it was, but here are the highlights.
--- Atami Baien ---
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