March Vacation 2012: The Last Island

We wanted to at least set foot on Shikoku, the last of the four main islands of Japan, before leaving the country. If we had a few more days, we would have done some hiking to see the famous vine bridges and the supposedly gorgeous Iya Valley, but the book said if we went that deep into the countryside there might not be any buses back out to the train lines.  That didn't sound ideal.  We therefore settled for an old castle and, according to the signs we saw, the oldest hot springs in Japan. Both of these were completely accidental finds on our quest to just get to the island and find a hotel for the night.

Hiroshima (on the main island of Japan, Honshu) is quite close to Shikoku, and a full day's train ride from Kagoshima, so we stayed there for a night and then took the ferry across to the city of Matsuyama on Shikoku the next day. We didn't want to use a train pass that day, so we stayed in the Matsuyama area. We left finding a hotel to the last minute for this place, trying to see if camping would be an option, and ended up taking one of the few available hotels in a town near Matsuyama called Dogo Onsen. We were fairly unimpressed by the pricing of the available hotels, and less impressed by how ours looked when we got there. It was small and a little sketchy.

That evening, we decided to take a look at what local attractions could be found, since we didn't really do so before arriving. Most visitors to Shikoku are interested in seeing some (or all) of the 88 famous temples around the island. This is a popular pilgrimage, a six-week jaunt around the island, stopping at every shrine to pray. We found a fairly impressive (somewhat stereotypically stair-filled) temple near the hotel:

We were not particularly interested in the temples. Maybe an expert can enjoy dozens of different temples, but for us they all blur together after a while, and we've seen plenty. We found the main attraction of Dogo Onsen a block and a half away from our hotel, explaining the pricing.  The main attraction of Dogo Onsen is "the oldest hot spring in Japan":

We felt more like food than a bath, so we wandered about town looking for dinner. We thought this would be pretty easy in such a tourist zone, and were particularly interested in getting some yakuniku, or cooking thin strips of meat over a grill at your table. Unfortunately, we couldn't find such a place, or very many options at all in the touristy area because most of the hotels were full ryokan, offering breakfast and dinner for guests. There were not many freestanding dinner options. After wandering up and down the streets and even trying the back alleys looking for something more to our liking than simple noodle or rice bowls, we wound up walking into an unassuming sandwich shop.  It turned out to be enormous inside and there we found some of the best burgers we've had in Japan along with some locally brewed beer. Excellent dinner, and again, something we managed to luck into:

In the morning, we did go for baths at the old hot spring, and despite the age of the outside of the building found that the baths themselves were made of carved stone, were in good shape, and were of pleasant temperature and composition. In addition to the onsen, there was a local castle that was not bombed during WWII. This castle was between our hotel and the train station, and made for a perfect morning trip before catching an early train across the island. In order to get to the castle, you had to either walk up a small hill or pay to ride up to the top. We wanted to catch a specific train and maximize time spent at the castle, so opted for mechanized transport. This was a one-person chairlift over some lovely blooming cherry trees:

The castle walls were pretty impressive, and the day was simply gorgeous for viewing the castle:

The cherry blossoms, while not at their peak, were certainly out and about on many of the trees around the castle. In Kanazawa and for most of Japan, we were likely to miss them this year, so were quite happy we got to see them a few times around the country. Artsy cherry blossom/castle shot:

 
This particular castle, while not bombed during the war, was struck by lightning at least once and had additional mishaps along the way, so was mostly not original. Still, the replica was impressive, the internal museum pretty good, and the view from the top of the tower was amazing:

We finished off our adventures in Mastuyama with a cone of ice cream, flavored with a notable local variety of orange, before taking the train to our next hotel in a small town where we mostly dealt with paperwork.

For some more shots of the castle and other things, check out Flickr.  This is out last post of adventure in Japan.  There is one more Japan-related post after this, where we talk about some things we liked and will miss.