Time to continue with my gasshuku recap! The morning of Day 2 was spent studying, but shortly after eleven, we left for Hagi. Hagi is this really small, traditional-looking town, and it’s absolutely beautiful.

Hagi (萩) 

First, we went to go see a furnace because:

It’s part of the World Heritage Site. And it’s part of the World Heritage Site because it’s proof of how Japan tried to modernise, once upon a time. Plus, these furnaces are symbols, which is kinda cool. But there’s also nothing around the furnaces, and to be honest, I’d rather have skipped it so that we could spend more time in Hagi itself.

Because Hagi is absolutely beautiful. I absolutely adore the town:

Lots of little corners to explore (not to mention many old houses) but not enough time.

And yeah, I overedited. I see that now ><

By the way, Hagi is also known for its pottery:

I really wanted to buy a cup, but I doubt it would have made it back in one piece. Perhaps next time, if I ever get the chance to visit again.

I thought these flower holder things (not the bowl) were really cute too!

Another thing Hagi is famous for is natsumikan, so when we saw natsumikan ice-cream, we immediately got it

And this promptly revived my cough, which is still going strong =.=

Oh, and isn’t the face on this frog the cutest?

I thought it was pretty cool that this shop had some Hagi ware just sitting outside. And by the way, we saw quite a few cafes that looked really good, but we really had no time to go in and relax with a cup of tea.

We had enough time to go into one house, so we chose the Kubota residence. It costs only 100 yen to go in, but if you plan to go into all 9, do get the day pass I saw, because that only costs 310 yen.

When we stepped past the entrance

The garden to the right of the previous picture

 I absolutely adore the tatami rooms

And the gardens!

And the kitchen

As seen by the many photos I have of it.

Akiyoshi Cave (秋芳洞)

After Hagi, we went to Akiyoshi Cave (秋芳洞), which make it the first limestone cave that I’ve visited!! And apparently it’s pretty famous (or so sensei said)

It’s about 1km in length, but we walked there and back so it’s about 2km total (unless you intend to get back to your car through some other way.

Anyway, the caves are wet and slippery, so if you’re there, be careful!

And I took loads of photos, but I’m not very good with dark places, so these are the best I could do. First, the iPhone photos:

And the DSLR photos

I just realised the phone photos might actually be sharper O.O