Japan - Day 11 - Manabeshima

 Japan - Day 11 - Manabeshima

Today was the makeup day for Brooke's Cat Island visit. If you saw on Day 9 the ferry to the Kasaoka islands was shut down due to high winds - we were there and I can tell you it was very windy!  I had originally planned to visit Aoshima which is across the bay from Hiroshima, but it would have been an all-day trip to try to get there and to the next city.  Turns out even this closer location was.

We took our time checking out of our Osaka hotel instead of leaving the hotel at 6:30am and trying to take the 9:10am express ferry. By the time we got on the bullet train down to Fukuyama and up to Kasaoka, it was time for the 11:20 ferry which was more of a commuter option, landing us on Manabeshima at 12:30.

The other downside to taking the later ferry is that we had to wait until 3:30pm to return and there's pretty much nothing to do for three hours.

Upon landing, we found three cats on the street right away. They were pretty rough and scraggly, but people had been feeding them. We spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how we would get back - the ticket was one-way and there was no ticket office on the Manabeshima side. I used my "Caveman Japanese" to talk to some other travelers to learn that you pay on the boat coming back.

We decided to kill some time with lunch and found a great place Moto Cafe only a block away from the "port." I thought the curry rice was delicious and the proprietor was delightful and very kind. She confirmed that we pay on the boat to return.  

We spent the next couple of hours wandering the main road up to a park. We saw a total of six people who lived on the island - two at the cafe, one lady tending a garden, a guy fixing boats, a police officer (cush job - there can't be anything going on there), and two guys that were burning some type of vegetation at the park - seaweed(?), and a crazy delivery driver in a very tiny car.

On the way to the park we played with three more cats and then saw one reclusive one at the park.  Seven total.  So eight people, seven cats. So the cats may outnumber the people, but neither appears to be very high. In fairness, we only saw a small part of the small island, so there could have been many more cats hanging out at the other port or on the opposite side.  

It's a very peaceful but somewhat boring island - you can stay here - there are a couple of places, but expect a very simple vacation.

We left at 3:30pm - bought tickets aboard, and then eventually made our way to Tokyo and the Disney Hotel Tokyo Bay Maihama. (By the way, there are two of them next to each other and we were NOT at the one called Tokyo Bay Maihama First Resort).

Coming all the way from Kasaoka, it was after 10pm by the time we got to the Tokyo Bay hotel and we went to sleep right away.  Disney Sea was the next day.