We said goodbye to Bill and Pam the night before, they needed to wake up early, hike out and catch a bus to Matsumodo, towards Nagano and on to Tokyo. Their plane was the next day. It was a lot of fun to travel with them and we will miss Bill’s ability to speak Japanese. We’re on our own now!

The weather was back to clouds and an occasional sprinkle, but we dodged rain.

After breakfast we took our time packing up, said arigato gozaimasu to Tokusawa-en, and walked back to the bus terminal.

Along the way we saw some monkeys! No Crescent Moon Bears though.

Near the busy area near the bus terminal we saw this painting all alone on an easel, with nobody around.

It was a nice painting, the thick paint strokes evoked the texture of the water, trees and rock. The whole setting though is a good example of what a relatively high trust environment Japan is. I’m sure stuff gets stolen, but its rare enough that many things work more smoothly here than elsewhere. A store at a train station can have one attendant even though most of the goods are around a wall out of sight. The train conductor doesn’t have to check everyone’s ticket, and paying the correct bus fare is up to the rider. And an artist can leave out their work for passers by to admire.