Yesterday’s randomly picked city to visit was Obama, in Fukui prefecture. It’s a really tiny town on the Sea of Japan that I chose, of course, for its name. Ever since Barack Obama started running for president, this little town has started a publicity campaign of its own, basically trying to cash in on the name. There’s a little local group that supports his candidacy, and some correspondence between the candidate and the mayor. I’m not sure how much it’s done for the tourism trade, however, because I visited on a holiday weekend and there wasn’t too much tourist activity. Oh well, it was a nice relaxing day by the sea, and I got some good views of some hawks, a really dangerous-looking fishing pier, and a closeup view of a bunch of those concrete things they have around harbors using them for whatever they’re used for. Also the train ride there and back was pleasant enough. A day well spent.

小浜