On this particular trip, I took my time, exploring every tiny seacoast road I could find - and as a result, it soon became obvious that I was not going to make my planned overnight stop at Cape Muroto in the southeast corner of the island. So I pounded up and down the "Minami Awa Sun Line," a scenic drive that achieves its scenic views by rather steep elevations like this one (paddies cascading down the hillside to the sea; note the two islands off in the distance). Eventually I wound up at a kokumin shukusha that offered what I've come to expect from these places: decent food, a nice room and great views (which, like the scenic road, were also elevation-derived).

The coast down to and around Cape Muroto offers nice scenery like the "surfing" beach you see here (with no waves of any kind visible) and the dramatic rocks in the distance, two of which were "meoto-iwa" - a pair of different- sized rocks right next to one another, whose name means "husband and wife rocks." Usually they're connected with a sacred rope and thus made into Shinto objects of worship.