Today Daron and Lori invited us to go with them to the baby shrine, which is only open two days out of the whole year. Pistured is Daron and his baby Annie, on the left. His father is Japanese (like 4th generation or something) and he's been studying Japanese so he knew more than any of us, he explained a few things about it. Pictured is the last quarter of a long boardwalk from the coastline over the water to reach the small island which houses the shrine. Lori said that up until a few days ago, the boards were missing. Apparently they only put down the boards between the stone pillars once a year.
Here's a view up inside the shrine. They had a ceremony later with drumming and music. At the back you can see the final stairs ascending to a small room, they're covered in white cloth.
Before crossing the boardwalk, we washed our hands in this water, including Colette and annie's hands. We did it to be respectfull as it is customary.
This was another small shrine at the top of the stairs.
I was excited to see beaches with swimmers along the coast on the way there. The shrine was anly 20 minutes from the school downtown, so swimmable beaches are nearer than I'd thought. The water wasn't pristine clean and clear like Hawaii or Costa Rica, but for me a beach is a beach. Daron says that the open seawater on the south or eastern sides of the island are cleaner, but it wasn't too bad, seemed like the Mediterranean sea to me. The coastline we've seen up to now has been port coastline, full of barges, rocks, docks, etc; not very nice to go swimming. I was very happy to see a more natural coastline so near Marugame. You can bet I'll be there with Colette during the hot month ahead of us, while Nicolle teaches at the school.

Tonight I went and played a few songs at a small Jazz bar downtown near the school. There was a trio playing tonight consisting of the owner on bass, a pianist and guitar player. I played "Lover Man" and "Doxy". I was very well recieved, I think mostly because of the novelty of having a real American sax player wowed them more than my actual abilities, they were all decent players; hopefully I can get a group together to play weddigns or parties in the area. He asked me to come back next week to play the full set. I'm not sure if he'll pay me or if it's just a free jam session, I guess I'll find out. It's hard to communicate, the bartender knew the most English of all of them, which still wasn't too much. I asked him if the group plays at weddings or parties, he kept repeating "wedding party" and saying "yes" so I guess they do, I'm not sure. The cafe owner upstairs speaks fluent English so I told the owner I'd email him and she could translate, I think he understood. I've gotta get cracking on my Japanese!