This morning, just as I was about to leave the car to go to the bathroom, it started to rain.  And, not just normal rain, but type of giant drops of rain that make you wonder if it’s rain or hail, and if it’s going to damage your car.  I was in two minds about whether I was lucky or unlucky hearing the rain start, because I was still dry, but I was in pain waiting for the rain to stop so I could go to the bathroom.

Not much longer we could hear dull/distant thunder, gradually intensifying until we could see flashes of lightning (and the almost instant thunder).

This weather kind of ruined our plans for the day.  I don’t think that walking around temples/forests etc is any fun in weather like today’s, so we decided to have (another) rest day.  In fact, the weather was so bad that we didn’t even leave the car to have breakfast.

Another day lying around watching Dexter.

Not far from Kameoka (which is where we were parked) is an onsen town called Yu-no-Hana.  I know sitting in an onsen is Risa’s favourite way to waste a day, so off we went.  Was a little bit of a challenge to find one that accepted day visitors AND was less than ¥2000.  Risa made a phone call to an information line and we found one that fit our requirements, and luckily was only a few minutes drive from where we were stopped (after trying to drive around and find the information centre).  It wasn’t a great onsen (smelt like a pool), but it was ¥600, and it allowed us to use it.  Even thought it wasn’t great, Risa still fell asleep there (leaving me to wait for her in the car).

By the time we’d finished it was after 4PM.  We went and did our laundry, shopped for dinner, dried our laundry, cooked our dinner and retired for the night to watch more Dexter and a movie (Tekkon-Kinkreet).

And, for once we weren’t sweating.