I woke up randomly at 3:30am yesterday morning and wasn’t able to get back to sleep. When we first arrived, everything was overcast so you weren’t able to see the 3000ft tall Mt. Motchomudake in front of our minshuku. I looked out the window and saw that the clouds had gone and there were a bunch of stars out. This was probably the best opportunity to try taking a few pictures of the night sky. I still have a ton to learn about this style of photography but I think these turned out nicely without dedicated equipment besides a tripod.

When planning this week, I had intended on leaving the day after our long hike with a chill out day as I knew we’d be sore and immobile due to our old age of 35. Even if we wanted to go out and explore the island, Typhoon Marwar decided for us that it was not the day to do so.

I woke up this morning to heavy rain pelting the windows. Guess yesterday’s question of “are we going hiking today?” was answered. As I got ready for the day, the rain would stop and switch to mist which raised my hopes but then the mist turned back into sideways rain again within a few minutes.

Saturday meant it was time for us to leave Yakushima Island and continue moving on with our trip. Naturally, it was beautiful and warm outside. Just in time for us to head out. I guess it’s better that we have nice weather to leave on the ferry otherwise we’d be stuck indoors again with heavy rains. We had our last breakfast with our new friends Matt and Julie overlooking this gorgeous mountain view.

Yesterday was our first full day in Kyoto. After a few days in Yakushima where we had a few chill out days we were ready and rested for more sightseeing. First place to check out with Nishiki Market, which has a history of 400 years of being “Kyoto’s Kitchen”.