Shodoshima, part 2

After we rented a car, Hideki drove us around the island and we headed over to an area called the Kankakei Gorge. I mentioned in the previous post that we went on a "rope way" as it is called here, but I don't know the best way to describe it. So, look at the picture! I called this a "cable car," but that made Mary Ann think of the trolley in San Francisco. I'm used to thinking of these as a "gondola" because that is one thing they are called on a mountain for skiing.
Anyway, we took about a 5 minute trip up to the top of the local mountain (900m?) and it was really beautiful to see the hills and the gorge. Too bad that everything hadn't "greened up" yet, but it was pretty. Must be breathtaking in the fall colors. It was notable cooler at the top and we explored around to see different views of the island. I wonder what kind of wildlife they have around there because we saw a rather grim looking monkey when we came and left. We had lunch up at the top and then came back down to head around the island some more.
Apparently there are a few soy sauce breweries on the island and we tried to see if we could take a tour. No luck with that, but we did find one of that had "soy sauce soft serve" ice cream. WTF?! No lie! I hesitated a little but caved in after Hidkeki bought a cone. How many times in your life....? Anyway, the flavor was very mild, only a tiny bit salty, actually a nice little snack. We continued around the island coast and came to a place called the Tanoura School. This was apparently the site that inspired a famous novel about WWII (and later a movie)called "24 eyes." Really neat to see a school preserved over 60 years. This was kind of out in the boondocks of the island, so interesting to see what a small contemporary fishing village is like.
Drove back toward the port and went by what I think is called "Olive Park." Nice park with numerous olive trees and a small museum describing how olives came to be cultivated on the island. We did not have any olive flavored ice cream at the gift shop, but something much better - olive flavored chocolates! OK, they were green and didn't taste like olive. I brought some back to work and I noticed the 'strawberry' ones disappeared faster than the 'olive' ones. We returned the car and then caught a bus that went along the north coast of the island to another ferry port. Ferry over to Himeji, train back to Kobe, bus back to Rokko island. Long but very satisfying day!