Tosashimizu and Tannowa (Osaka)

We had a rough overnight passage to Toashimizu from Yakushima.  That said, once we entered the well protected port things improved quickly.  We were greeted by friendly Coast Guard and Customs people and even to Police sent a man to visit to make sure that we were okay.

We tied up on another tidal wall where we knew we were expecting some very high winds over the next 24 hours.  The winds came, and we felt almost nothing.  it was wonderful.

We explored the small village and picked up a few groceries.  We even found a barber who spent over an hour giving me the most incredible haircut and shave ever! It was a little expensive, but the experience alone was worth it....

 

We learned about a street market so we visited it and found the biggest attraction was North American treats like french fries and corn dogs... Who knew...

Our best moment came when a lovely man knocked on our boat and with only one word of English handed us a beautiful pencil drawing of our boat and said, "gift"  and tried to walk away.  Shelley asked if he would let us take his picture and he said yes...  What a beautiful gift!

After the low passed the sun came out and the wind came on our nose as we tried to complete our journey to Osaka.  We beat against it for a few hours then decided we would be better off burning fuel and getting into the lee of the Osaka harbor as soon as possible.

By the next morning we were calmly motoring to our new home for the next week while we wait to pick up Christina & Derrek.

The Tannowa Yacht Club must have been quite a place in its day.  Today it looks a little tired and run down, but the people here more than make up for the facilities shortcomings.  We are way out on the farthest dock which makes to walk to the club house an event, but it is very peaceful where we are.  We hadn't been docked more than a few hours when a very distinguished gentleman (Mr. Yoshida Tsuneo) visited us and asked us to fill out the foreigners visitor log...  In it we found some old friends!   What a treat!  We will add our page before we leave.

The marina manager has been so helpful.  Yesterday he took us to a large (Walmart like) store where we did a big provisioning for the crossing.  I think we will either love or hate noodles by the time we get home....

We will post one more blog before we head out around the middle to end of next week...  Cheers!