Imabari--the shores of the Inland Sea, and delicious ice cream!

On a sunny Saturday at the end of May, one of our fellow Saijo friends invited Jennifer and I to go on an 'outing' somewhere with her and her always-inquisitive son. To where we had no idea, so we grabbed our bags, headed over to her place and were told we were going to the nearby town of Imabari, about a half hour to the West. Having never spent a significant amount of time there, but having heard about the castle (as well as seen it from the train) and a certain towel museum, I was more than curious as to where the journey would take us.
As it would turn out, neither of those places.

First, it was down a highway towards Imabari, with a detour just outside of town to go to the very narrow beach of Seto Inland Sea National Park. Let's put it this way, if you were playing freeze tag with a few friends on the beach, you could run up and down the whole 'beach' and everyone could be frozen within a matter of minutes. Yeah.
it was kinda small.
But it was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect with clouds sailing above the distant islands and off towards the mountains of Saijo to the East, and we got to skip stones on the water and soak our feet in the frigid, frigid still waters of the Seto Inland Sea (I have yet to see any waves on this thing. I don't think it happens.) So, Jennifer and I chased Alex while Moto looked on and we all kicked water on each other (as it happened, my mini skirt was actually soaked by one of Alex's attacks. Thanks, dude!) and we made a sandcastle, that didnt last through the water coming ashore (the beach was mainly made of small rocks--or, maybe, large pieces of sand?--so we had to be reallly close to the water to make a castle out of anything resembling, um, sand.)
So, good times! Then we hopped back in the car with our sandy shoes, just in time to head off to a nearby farmer's market, replete with fish, fish, and more freshly caught fish! including some left out to dry (they must get more, um, delicious that way?) and a cafe for sweets, surrounded by small plants and herbs, and this giant cactus. There was a also a nearby restaurant, with this lovely setup of flowers and ... um, a poem I'll venture? Not sure what that says, but its pretty nevertheless. Of course, there was also fresh, fresh, freshly made ice cream (best ive had in Japan so far hands down) and plenty of horsing around. By the time we hung out there for a bit, it was already late and we had to come back. On the way back, we did get to see the eminent towel museum, but it was too late to stop by. Aw, man! I guess learning how towels are made will have to wait for a rainy day...