The trip itself is around 750km, so quite a long drive, we drove all night to get the early on Tuesday morning. The first stop was to see the statue of O Sensei by the water front. Also saw a pod of whales too !
We then visited Nemoto Sensei's friend (unfortunately his name has escaped me) we had a look around his dojo. He became our tour guide for the day. We visited O Sensei grave site and all made some small offerings of incense. The graveyard was a fantastic place. The buildings and landscape gardening was like something out of a movie set, and naturally the place was immaculate. We then visited the plot of O'Sensei former family home. Another great opportunity to set foot in the places that O'Sensei himself had walked and played as a child. Obviously feel very privileged and grateful to have the opportunity to do this.
We went out that evening and had dinner and then retired to bed in our rather luxurious hotel. Early the next day we headed back to Iwama with a stop of at the largest(?) Shinto shrine complexes in Japan. We didn't stop for long as we had so much further to go. In total it took 14 hours to get home, including the breaks. Three of us in the back was a little squashed but I wouldn't have cared if there was 6 of us.
