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Published: September 30th 2014
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Today I decided to head for Matsue,MIT was a late decision change as I was going to go to Nagasaki, but as it was a similar place to Hiroshima, as in affected by the A bomb, I decided I would go somewhere different.
It's located on the coast and surrounded by mountains and has lakes nearby so I'd read. I wished I'd had more time to stay longer but I only had 7 days on my pass and had to be back in Tokyo on the 23rd.
So I headed off on 8am ish train, had to make one change and then took a local train from Okayama and got there just after 11am. I had pre booked a hotel near the station as I knew I wouldn't have far to walk. I headed straight for the information office and armed with a map, location of the hotel and where the tourist hot spots were and where to hire a bike I headed off to the hotel.
It was a really lovely day, blue could less skies very much an Indian summer as I could feel in the sir that autumn is
just round the corners looking at the surrounding countryside I can imagine it to be a beautiful place when the autumn colours arrive.
I found the hotel,really easily but couldn't check I until 3pm. I used the facilities and changed into cooler clothes and left my bHpgs at the hotel . The cycle hire place was close to,the train station so I did t have far to walk. The cycle was a very basic model witH no gears and a basket on the front, and it cost 300¥ for the day. Even though I hired the bike after 12 noon they still charged me the full day rate which ok I guess and I couldn't really argue with them lol.
The bike place also gave me a map so I had two points of reference should I get lost lol. There were a couple of rivers going through the city and a few Bruges going over them some tried to use these as points of reference. For a small. For a small city the place was really quiet. I toured round on my bike catching cures of the river and the mountains, the small
shopping area, which consisted of lots of small local shops and restaurants rather than big busy shopping malls I had been used to.
I cycled round and easily found the castle on top of the hill. I parked my bike up and wandered around. I paid to go in the castle which isn't like the ones we are used to in UK and Europe. The ground floor us made of stones a few meters tell and it was used to store food and ammunition during a siege snd also had a well for a constant supply of fresh water.
Above this were 4 other floors used for various purposes. The 4 floors were made our of wood and the castle was owned by a samurai family for ax number of generations and is considered to be an important piece of Japanese history and is well maintained. Inside are various displays of how the land surrounding the castle has changed over years, the story of castle in pictures and lots of artifices from the samurai dynasties. These included uniforms, helmets and weapons. After climbing to the 5th floor and tasking dome panoramic shots it came
beck down and continued to wander around following the signs for various tourist spots.
I visited a couple of shrines and then walked to a samurai generals house. It was a lovely walk on a path along three line paths and no cars. I then walked through the village and along the river to the samurai house. I walked the same path back to make sure I didn't get lost lol. I stopped off little shop a got an ice cream as a treat on such a hit day, it was yummy lol.
I went back to the castle and collected my bike and checked the map as the guy at the tourist info said I should visit some tea rooms. I basically followed the path I had just walked and found the tea rooms or at least what I thought were the tea rooms, but they seemed to be closed.
So I decided to go for a cycle round and get lost a little. On the way I stopped off for some supplies for my early morning start tomorrow and some scoobie snax. I cycles around and found the rivers
and then the costal area. It was such a beautiful day and I knew there would be an amazing sunset and it want too far from my hotel.
I cycled back to the cycle hire and dropped off the bike and walked back to the hotel and settled in to my small room - it really was a single room! It had a small bath but I. Wa able to watch TV in there lol. It even came with a small plastic duck, bath monitor which you put on the edge of the bath to the water level you want and when the water reaches that level an alarm sounds lol. I had a fridge, TV, iPod docking station, AC and a little gadget which you turn in in a dark room and the heavenly constellations appear. I must get one of those. My room info said to use it in the bath but I'm sure it could be used in other rooms in the house.
About 5.45pm I headed for the sea to sit and watch the sun go down. It was a perfect sunset and there were a few other people sitting
watching it too. Even the fish were jumping which made me smile, I decided they were happy fish and were popping out to see the sun set lol.
After the sunset I headed back to the hotel and got changed for dinner as there was a restaurant on the ground floor. When I went down to enquire they advised me it was closed! There were no notices anywhere to say this, so I spat my dummy out, went back to my room and ate the supplies and scoobie snax and had a bath and an early night.
Xxx
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