In order to break up the train journey back to Kyoto we stopped off for a night and a whistle-stop tour of Tsuwano. It was a charming little place.

In the few hours we had we got round it's few little sights - a single chair chairlift up to the castle ruins, a relatively large shrine for such a small place and enormous koi carp swimming around the drainage ditches . . . ! Someone had even, quite thoughtfully, put on a play for us. The young kids seemed to love it - Gemma thought it was a bit scary - all the growling was surely quite unnecessary!

Because it was such a small place the done thing seemed to be to eat in your Ryokan, because there were no restaurants! We'd been keen to try this traditional meal and couldn't believe it. We were expected a few noodles and perhaps some kind of soup, but we had the most gourmet meal since we've been in Japan. Sashimi, two kinds of soup,%u3000two kinds of pickles with the veg cut into little flowers, chicken, rice, noodles,%u3000figs, a mini-Shabu Shabu all washed down with (our reputation preceeds us!) a nice cold beer! The old guy was so proud of his food and made sure we knew the right sauces and dips that went with each thing. The only thing we obviously did wrong was that everyone else had eaten in their dressing gowns! We went to bed extremely well sated and very happy that the pin had landed in Tsuwano when we were deciding where to stop off.