Amami is home to a rather large growth of mangroves, and a popular tourist attraction is to kayak down the river and enjoy the view. The Amami and Kikai ALTs got together this weekend to try it for ourselves. Luckily the weather was perfect, with blue skies and not a cloud in sight.
The Friday night before, we all met up at Shimatofu for dinner.
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| I got the mabo tofu set. The restaurant also offers complimentary mikki, a sweet drink. |
On Saturday morning Nat and I drove up to Naze to meet with Mario and the Naze/Kasari ladies (because it wasn't possible for all 5 of them to fit in Julia's car) and then back down to Sumiyo where the park is located. We paid the 1500 yen per person fee and drove down to the bank where a bunch of kayaks and life jackets were waiting. After a quick paddling lesson we hopped in and set off.
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| L-R: Mario, me, Sarah, Nat, Julia, Dineo, Tember |
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| Mario and me in our kayak |
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| The mangroves. |
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| The surrounding view is beautiful too. |
After we finished we went to Noa Noa, a local curry place and one of the few that offers Indian-style curry. Our ALT friend Vijay (works in Uken through Interac) frequents this place often enough that they remember him...and he always goes for the max spiciness level. (I'll just stick with level 1, thanks.) Even though they didn't have enough naan bread for all of us, we left with our stomachs happy to go hang out at Julia's apartment until we said goodbye for the night.
