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Published: September 15th 2016
The day after the wedding, with our bags packed and stashed at the hotel we headed off for one last look around some of Matsuyama. This entailed a walk through the long shopping arcade which, being a Sunday morning, was fairly quiet. Such arcades are usually buzzing with people in the evenings; well worth a browse of all the quirky little shops as well as the larger department type stores. The only thing we bought was my favourite green tea ice cream! Despite the fact that September is the first month of Autumn the weather seems more like summer; hot and humid. You'd hate it Margot! As Sappy said when we first arrived; it must be global warming.
Staying on the shady side of the road we wandered past the Matsuyama City Hall which has a dome much the same as the one in Hiroshima which is the only part of the building to survive the atomic bomb dropped on 6 August 1945. We wandered around a park where we met a young Japanese Usain Bolt practising his running skills. There were many people playing games in the park. It was also an ideal spot for another look at Matsuyama
Castle on the hill overlooking the town.
Back at the hotel Masako was waiting to take us to Dogo. We packed our cases into Masako's car as she was later to take us to catch a local express to Okayama, followed by the Shinkenson to Shinagowa which is the closest station to where Ross lives. At Dogo we met Sappy, her brother Yuskae and new husband Takuya where we all went for a delicious lunch at a Japanese smorgasbord style restaurant; lots of yummy fresh salads, miso soup and desserts where I could indulge my love of green tea ice cream! A free hot springs foot bath followed before we came across two groups of men having a mock Mikoshi battle. That was great fun to watch. A Mikoshi is a portable Shinto shrine; followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between a main and temporary shrine during a festival or when moving to a new shrine. What we watched was a Mikoshi fight when the two groups bumb into each other; lots of shouting goes on to encourage each particular group. It was quite an experience!
Then it
was off to the Matsuyama JR station to board our train for Tokyo. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Masako, Sappy, Takuya and Yuskae. We feel privileged to know such a lovely family and to have been invited to Sappy's wedding. Thank you all so much for your kindness and the way you spoilt us rotten. We want you to visit Australia soon so we can return the hospitality.
Our first train, which took us to Okayama, left Matsuyama at 3.28pm and it was about 11pm by the time we reached Shinagowa station. As we sped along, inbetween reading "The Burial" by Courtney Collins there was some very interesting scenery to view. The train took us along one of the longest bridges we've ever been on which connected one island to the next. We just made our second train with about two minutes to spare and luckily, as we were in a non reserved carriage, we managed to score a seat on what was a very full train. Ross was thrilled when we finally arrived at his apartment. He'd spent the day on the motorbike riding back to Tokyo so, like us, he was ready to hit the
sack!
While we only had roughly four and a half days with Ross we managed to do quite a bit during the time he was at work including some domestic chores like grocery shopping. It's always interesting shopping in unknown supermarkets especially when most of the items are in a language you don't understand.
Monday evening, once Ross was back from work, the three of us went to Ty Harbour - less than five minutes walk from the apartment - for dinner to celebrate Andrea's 56th birthday. Happy Birthday Andrea; we hope you enjoyed yourself on your birthday in Tasmania as much as we enjoyed our celebration in Tokyo.
Despite the constant heavy rain, on Tuesday we set off with Ross to see where he worked. This entailed about 15 minutes of walking, 30 minutes on a packed train and then another 10 minutes of walking to get to the Erikson office in Yokohama where he works. With a population of around 4 million Yokohama is almost as big as Sydney wereas the population of Tokyo is 13.62 million! The rain was still pouring down when we said our goodbyes and headed off towards the Yokohama Art
Museum only to find that it was closed to enable them to install a new exhibition. Not deterred, we crossed the Square to enter a large department store heading for the fifth floor to discover what was called Orbi Yokohama. The brochure explained that we were about to "Discover unknown world's and the mysteries of life within the Entertainment Exhibitions ". It was quite interesting with twelve different exhibition spaces which included films and interactive displays; the sort of thing which young kids enjoy. The bonus was, once we'd spent some time there, the rain was almost gone.
Next stop was to the Sky Garden on the 69th floor of the Landmark Tower taking Japan's fastest elevator which boasts a maximum travel speed of 750 metres per minute. The 360 degrees panoramic views over Yokohama, due to the low cloud, weren't quite as extensive as they would have been on a clear day.
Our last visit was to Nisson's Global Display, advertised as the largest car showroom in Japan. Kev was especially impressed with all the shiny new cars and a few old models. Then it was off to Yokohama station to catch a train back to Shinagowa.
Once at the apartment Kev cooked us up a storm in the small kitchen to greet our darling Rossy when he arrived home.
Having bought Japan Rail Pass tickets before we left Sydney - a must if you're going to travel by train as it saves you so much - we caught the Shinkenson to Shizuoka on Wednesday. The town of Shizuoka, close to Mt Fuji has great views of Japan's sacred mountain on a clear day, and is about one and a half hours south of Tokyo. Once there we caught a hop on, hop off tourist bus; first stop Sumpa Park in the centre of the city which houses what remains of Sumpa Castle built in 1585 by Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun. We also visited the Momijiyama Japanese Garden in Sumpu Park which was very peaceful and a beautiful place to wander around. Then if was off to the Prefectoral Office Observatory on the 21st floor. Again no view of Mt Fuji which was still covered in cloud.
Back on the hop-on, hop-off bus to the Cultural Properties Museum which contained some shrines. Reading the information there it would appear that until twenty or so
years ago these shrines had been left unattended until artisans from around Japan came to restore them to some of their former glory. Hundreds of steps beckoned which, as we climbed, turned into thousands but being the stalwarts we are we kept climbing. Finally we reached the top of the mountain (or maybe it should be called a very high steep hill) where there was a statue to mark the summit. Seeing steps, other than the ones we'd just climbed up, we enquired of the three people who'd also made the climb if they got us back into town. As the spoke no English they drew us a map in the dirt with a stick! Yes it would seem that we could climb down that way however it turned out to be much narrower and steeper than the climb up; in some parts there were ropes tied to trees to help you ease your way down. So it was quite an adventure! Once down we had no idea where we were and, not finding any tourist bus stops, we walked around three klms back to the station. It was two weary travellers who finally relaxed as our Shinkenson took us
back to Shinagowa where we enjoyed an evening with Ross and his mate Atsushi who joined us. We knew Atsushi - who has recently become a daddy to a little girl - from our previous visits here. Congratulations Atshushi, from the pictures you showed us, she looks adorable!
Our last full day here we met one of our Japanese friends Yuki - who was one of our homestays some years ago - at Tsukishima station. It's always lovely to catch up with Yuki who is a tennis coach here in Tokyo. From the station Yuki walked us to the Monjayaki area of Tokyo where we ate a delicious Monjya meal. The ingredients in Monjayaki are finely chopped and mixed into the batter before frying on a hotplate in the middle of the table which you then you eat with little scrapers. Both the other customer, our chef and two staff in the restaurant were extremely friendly which made our lunch a great fun event. After that we went into a shop opposite the restaurant and bought ourselves some Monjya tools so that we can make something along these lines when we get home. We figured that it would make
a nice BBQ meal with a difference.
We later met Ross at Shinagowa station where we enjoyed dinner together before walking back to Ty Harbour for dessert.
It's now Friday. Tonight we depart Tokyo's Narita airport bound for Sydney. Ross will be leaving for work a little later than usual to spend a little more time with us. Once again, parting is such sweet sorrow. Thanks Rossy; we love you dearly and look forward to our next meeting!
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