Takehara

Jeff and I decided to take a small road trip this weekend and ventured off to Takehara.  It is a small town about 40 minutes from Saijo that is famous for it's influence on bringing Whiskey production to Japan. 

Masataka Taketsuru, who's family had owned a sake brewery since 1733, went to Scotland in 1918 to study organic chemistry.  While he was there he worked in Whiskey distilleries.  He married a Scottish woman and moved back to Japan.  He eventually opened his own distillery which is still in operation and is called Nikka.  Japan makes roughly 5% of the worlds Whiskey and has a reputation for having excellent Whiskey.  I happen to like Whiskey but due to pregnancy, I have not been able to do any tasting in Japan.  Something I hope to remedy after I give birth. 

There is a small historic district in Takehara which was fun to walk around and included to old family sake brewery of Masataka Taketsuru.  There were small restaurants, a couple of temples and some craft shops.  Takehara is also known for making bamboo products and the name Takehara means bamboo field. We also found an amazing toy shop with carved wooden toys and puzzles.  We think we ordered a really cool puzzle in which 5 little elephants fit together to make one big elephant.  We are not 100% certain about this due to some language issues but the shop keeper was an amazing nice man.  It was a nice place to wander around a bit.

Pretty little shop with nice plants

the sake brewery of Masataka Taketsuru's family

Interesting gutter cover.  It is not unusually to have some sort of street gutter in Japan because it rains so much.  This one is covered with bent bamboo and I thought it was pretty cool looking.

We grabbed a bit of lunch and then headed over to where we heard there was a nice beach.  It was a very small beach but it was nice to walk at the water's edge and get my feet wet.  The water was very clear and greenish-blue.  It reminded us of beaches in Thailand. 

Islands out in the Seto Inland Sea

Me walking along the beach.  Not so pregnant from behind.  Not sure I'm willing to post anything from the front or side anymore, hahaha

Other little piece of trivia, there is a small island that is overrun with rabbits right across the sea from the beach we were at called Okunoshima.  It is now a popular tourist destination and there is a ferry that goes out to it.  The rabbits were used for chemical weapons testing during WWII and were released after the war and have pretty much taken over the island.  We did not go out there but sounds like something that would be used as a superhero/villain origin story.

It was a lovely day and nice to get out and about.  I've been feeling a bit cooped up as my impending due date is limiting my activities.  It was also Mother's Day and even though I haven't given birth yet, Jeff was super sweet and made me a lovely breakfast and dinner and cleaned the floors.  Yay!