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Wisteria Garden
I wonder if I could grow wisteria up the porch at our place?If you’ll find a map of Japan, look in the southwest of the country for an island called Shikoku, longer than it is wide, with no really large cities. We’re spending three weeks traveling from one small city to another, starting with Tokoshima, then traveling down the center of the island through the Oboke gorge to Kochi, then west through Uwajima, with about 60,000 people, to Shikoku’s largest city, Matsuyama. Today, we’re on the train traveling around the northeast corner of the island, right near the sea, so I’m using the time on the train to catch up.
Kochi: we stayed in the Richmond Hotel, which is right on the town’s arcade street. These are basically covered pedestrian streets, though stealth bicycles sneak up on you all the time. Since Japanese drive on the left, we’re still trying to figure out where you’re supposed to walk. People ride bicycles on the sidewalk, though they do keep their scooters
"Typical" Breakfast
The meals look so dainty, but then you realize you've had a huge meal. and cars on the streets, unlike Vietnam and China, but whether we walk on the right or the left, we find ourselves either jumping out of the way of a bike coming up from behind or avoiding oncoming bicycle or pedestrian traffic. The arcades contain everything from department stores to McDonalds to hair salons to sushi restaurants and are a great asset in a country where it rains twelve months of the year. We walked up and down this arcade and found a wonderful food court just off one end, where we ate seared bonito tuna one night and Indian food the next noon. The first night, we were walking along the tiny streets (some only 5-10 feet wide) and heard American oldies music. We entered to find ourselves the only customers of a great oldies band, though 6 more folks arrived during the first set. The music was fun and they took requests from a sheet of songs written entirely in Japanese. The place is called Back Beat.
Uwajima: traveling here from Kochi was like being the string that connects a set of beads – we went through dozens of tunnels; I counted 35 on one stretch
Coastline
Southern Shikoku Island, on the way to Kochi between towns. Uwajima is small and rarely visited by English speakers, so most signs, menus, and tourist info notices are only in Japanese, but there’s definitely enough info to navigate the sights. Again, we walked, traveling from a beautiful small castle on a hill in mid-town to the Awashima shrine that’s dedicated to helping women overcome infertility. The castle is one of twelve in Japan that’s original, though it’s been renovated and maintained. I’m getting much better at walking up the steep stone steps; even Tom remarked that the samurai must have had long legs. The tourist descriptions snigger at the sexual overtones of the shrine and the attached “sex museum”, but the gardens around the shrine are beautiful and worth a visit. The museum was dark (lights were off) and we didn’t go in. Walking around Japanese neighborhoods is a treat in itself, as you can see the beautiful gardens and the innovative ways that owners use their tiny yards. We stayed in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel that looks like a western hotel on the outside but has traditional Japanese rooms and an “onsen” – Japanese bath. Inside our room door was a stone-floor area where we
14 Bar, Naoshima Island
Yuki Ono personally accounted for all the empty bottles, which he drank as he got his new business built and started. left our hiking boots, then a wood-floored entry area about 5 feet wide – with its own set of slippers that you remove before you step onto the tatami mat sleeping and lounging area. There’s separate set of slippers for the bathroom. The room had everything we needed, from a refrigerator to two sinks to fresh tea and snacks on a low table with cushions and floor-level chairs with backs – much appreciated by Tom. The futons and linens are stored in a closet and assembled for you in the evening, after the table is moved to the side of the room. You’re provided with light cotton “yakutas” (kimono) to wear to the bath, which felt a little like wearing your bathrobe to the lobby of the hotel. We changed before dinner, but the Japanese people didn’t. We were served a traditional Japanese dinner of many different dishes served on tiny plates, and a similar Japanese breakfast the next morning. Good food, but not always what you’d expect. Note to Dakota: don’t travel in Japan if you don’t like fish!
Matsuyama: the largest of Shikoku’s cities, Matsuyama has a beautiful castle again located on the one hill that’s
The Inland Sea
It was not as cold as the Pacific off Los Angeles! in the middle of town. From the top, you can see all the surrounding hills and the bay from which enemy ships would have approached – definitely a good place to live if you were the lord of the area. Building began in 1603 (I
think the year Elizabeth I died – don’t ask me why I remember that) and continued to 1835, with reconstruction and repairs continuing to 2006. As far as I can tell from the info we were given, the only time it was involved in a battle was when it was bombed during World War II. I would not want to be a soldier who was told to scale those walls.
Matsuyama has a very good tram system, which we used to visit more of the 88 temples and shrines covering the island, the castle, homes of poets and writers, and the city’s arcade streets. (By the way, there are MANY more than 88 temples on Shikoku; the 88 are just ones that are on a pilgrimage “tour”. Great food again, this time including yakatori, which is skewered chicken and vegetables cooked over charcoal. Matsuyama has more of those tiny (10-person) restaurants squeezed into the
Back Beat
We met this band in Kochi; they were great! small streets and alleys surrounding the arcade streets and more beautiful neighborhoods to admire. It also has a huge Victorian-era onsen (Japanese bath) that’s famous all over the country and that contains a special set of baths used only by the Japanese royal family. Tickets for the baths were included with our room at the Patio Dogo Hotel, but we both had experienced the baths in smaller, more private settings, and were a little uneasy about bathing with hundreds of unknown people, so we skipped and gave our tickets to a henro, one of the hundreds of pilgrims traveling the island to visit the 88 temples. He was happy!
Next town in the circle: Kotohira. It was the first day of Golden Week, Japan’s spring break-type holiday, when many businesses close and the whole country goes on vacation. Think of Thanksgiving weekend, but expect businesses to be closed. Kotohira is a little town with a famous temple, reached by a series of steps totaling over 1300. For the first time in Japan, we ran into hordes of tourists, all coming to climb the steps. I cleverly sent Tom on a sweaty hike to the top with his camera,
Uwajima Castle
Azaleas are in bloom all over Japan. We just missed the cherry blossoms in Tokyo. since I was having some leg cramps (is it any wonder why?). I walked in the town and watched women head for the steps, some of them wearing 5 inch heels. Agony! Our hotel was again a ryokan, a traditional inn next to the river. Called Kotoburi Ryokan, the inn provided tatami-mat rooms and two onsen, one with a tub that fit only two people. We reserved it and had a HOT bath – getting spoiled – and ate the best ryokan dinner yet. Again, the dinner was a set of small, dainty dishes that concealed the fact that we were getting a huge amount of food. We went out afterwards and walked the streets, but the sidewalks had been rolled up, so we bought a beer from a vending machine and went “home”.
Only one afternoon in Kotohira, so the next day we were back on the train and on our way to Takamatsu. By the way, if all the names are starting to run together for you, think of us. We’re losing complete track. For the first time, Inside Japan (the tour company that bought the tickets and made the hotel reservations) failed us with poor
Uwajima Castle
Located on top of a hill in the center of town, where the local lord could see enemies coming from far away. directions from the railroad station and we walked in the completely wrong direction (carrying about 30-40 pounds of packs) for miles. When we finally found the hotel, the Dormy Inn surprised us with a very nice rooftop onsen, a free “coin” laundry, a great buffet breakfast, and a very small room. No problem with it, but I wouldn’t want to be very tall or very fat and try to move around. Still on the hunt for good fish, we learned that Takamatsu is known for its noodles – and that most restaurants in the area were closed for Golden Week. We found a great noodle place, walked more miles through the world’s longest arcade (almost two miles). We met people with dogs for the first time, and learned that they’re even welcome in some restaurants. I had fun.
We had one night in Takamatsu and finally left Shikoku on a ferry to Naoshima Island, which is located between Shikoku and the “mainland”. Japan is made up of thousands of islands, but the biggest one is called the mainland. I guess you could argue that Australia is only an island too … Naoshima’s fishing industry was dying, so the
Wisteria
We were walking along an urban street and spotted this gorgeous arbor in someone's yard. enterprising people on the island managed to create an artist’s colony and a thriving tourist business. This time, Inside Japan’s directions were really bad – they told us that the ryokan was only a few minutes walk from the Honmura harbor, which is true. However, they neglected to tell us that the Honmura harbor is on the other side of the island from the Myanoura harbor, where the ferry docked. At least this time, we’d taken advantage of luggage forwarding and had sent our big packs on to Kyoto, so as we trudged around the town and up the hill, we weren’t too burdened. We asked a half-dozen people for directions, using the Japanese info we’d received, and finally met a WONDERFUL young man who put us into his car and drove us over the top of the island to the right neighborhood. Our ryokan this time was called Minshuko Ishii Shouten and had a large tatami room, a neat little (one-person) Japanese bath, and more huge meals served on dainty little plates. Breakfast was served on about 10 little plates and included a salmon steak, fried egg, a bowl of miso soup, tofu chunks served with flakes of dried
Uwajima Harbor
Photo taken from the lord's castle up on the hill. fish, two small bowls with salads and pickles, a little bowl of tiny shrimp or some kind of fish that looked to me like inchworms (skipped those), bowls of rice and tea. Good grief. We also went to a small bar (14 Bar) owned by a devoted fan of Jack Daniel who had at least 20 empty bottles of Jack on his bar and a tattoo of the Jack Daniel emblem on his arm. I’d bought about ten JD patches at the hardware store in Lynchburg, so passed them out to staff and customers, making some instant friends for Tennessee. Next day, we went walking, ignoring the weather that now looks like a typhoon coming in from the southeast. We’ll probably be in rainy weather till we leave Japan. We decided to walk to some art museums, knowing they were up a hill, but not realizing they were on top of the darn mountain! We’d walked all the way up and were coming down the other side when we met a bus that picked us up and took us back to our neighborhood. Again, we’ve been asked, “Why in the world are you visiting here?” We keep telling people we
Awashima Shrine
Famous as a place where women pray for the ability to have children. want to learn about Japan and meet Japanese people instead of tourists – they nod their heads, but I’m not sure they really understand.
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