Trip to Onomichi City

　　I drove my car to take my wife to Onomichi City, which is three hours away by car from my home. The city is not so far, but I don't go there if not for a special occasion. Today, her alumni party was scheduled at noon in the city. Starting in the morning was perfectly reachable, but I left yesterday, as I wanted to have a drink with a person who lives in Onomichi City. As we started after my work, we arrived in the city around 9 o'clock in the evening. Then, though I had not enough time, I enjoyed chatting with him over some alcohol and he treated me. I felt so sorry. I have to return a favor.
　　Today, until noon, we were in Tomonoura, which we'd been to a couple of times. It has a distinctive history and is visited by lots of tourists every year. This time we moved to Sensuijima island for the first time, which floats just in front of Tomonoura. The shuttle boat between the island and our side was designed and named after "Iroha Maru", which sank off the coast of Tomonoura in the late Edo period. It's known as the ship of Rhoma Sakamoto, who worked as one of the driving powers to shape a new era, Meiji. A flock of red-jacketed people got on the boat in exchange with us. They were members of a local Rotary Club planning to do some volunteer work cleaning.

カミさんの同窓会が尾道で開催されるため運転手を務めた。尾道はうちから３時間ほどの距離で、高速道路で簡単に行ける街だが、何か用がない限り行くことはない。同窓会は昼からだから朝自宅を出ても十分間に合うのだが、一杯飲みたい相手がいてわざわざ前日の夜出発。仕事を終えてからの出発で到着は２１時頃。それからなつかしい飲み会となった。すべておごってもらい申し訳なかった。

で、今日は昼までは鞆の浦観光。何度か来たことがあり、歴史的にも興味の尽きない街だが、今回初めて仙酔島へ渡ってみた。この地は幕末に活躍した坂本龍馬に縁があり、彼の記念館もある。写真の船は仙酔島への渡し船だが、異様な形は彼の船「いろは丸」にちなんでいる。島から戻ってきて折り返す船に乗る赤いジャケットの一団は地元のロータリークラブ。島の清掃ボランティアに向かうらしい。

Comments

[KUMO]

Thank you for visiting my blog. I read some of your blog entries, and they attracted me. I've been to Malacca a few years ago.

http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2016/08/dutch-square.html

[Semi]

It's a beautiful city. I once lived in Tokyo, which is about 10 years ago. Sometime, hopping on a train to get to nearby cities used to be my favourite hobby. I miss Japan so much!