Today, Monday, Oct 3, was spent mostly getting acclimated to the time zone differences and getting things in order for the stay.

The house where my cousin and her husband live.

I also had a small tour of the town area , but not enough to really get a sense of what is where, and the directions (compass) just yet, although when the sun pokes up from the clouds it’s pretty easy to tell which way is which.

Our first stop was a well known super market in Zushi, but along the way, I snapped some photos of a tidal river (I say “tidal” here because it fills when tide is in, and empties when tide is out).

The plaque says “hisagigawa” which I take to mean “Hisagi River” (kawa/gawa = River).

OK Market:

The top floors on the right that you see are actually a parking garage. This seems to be a pretty central market as it’s a few blocks from both Shin-Zushi and Zushi train stations (eki - 駅), and very busy.

There are 7-Eleven’s everywhere. There’s probably at least 5 of them for every 10 square blocks of town. There are a few other chain konbini (convenience stores) as well, but 7-Eleven seems to be the biggest. They also have what are known as “mini-supers”, which are basically corner markets which contain a little selection of everything. There is a mini-super just down the street from where I’m staying (3-blocks?), unfortunately, I did not get a picture of it.

The 7-Eleven I visit most, just down the street from the OK Market (OK Market is straight in the direction I’m facing and on the right-hand side, a few blocks down):

There are a couple of small shrines/temples right down the street from the house, which is cool because I was able to simply walk to them and snap a few quick shots. Unless it’s a touristy place, I opt not to go inside and attempt to take pictures out of respect.

One of the other spots we visited this first day, simply because it’s a 5 minute walk from the house, was Zushi beach. (3-blocks south, at most.)

All in all, a pretty eventful and good day, but not a lot going on just yet as we’re still getting acclimated to the +8 hour difference in time.