Western Shikoku Roadtrip!

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September 23rd 2005

Published: November 7th 2005

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heatherinjapan

the chair-lift ride to Matsuyama castle

Bright and early Friday morning, Dana and I drove to Onomichi to pick up two other JETs, Tanya and Kate....that was the start of our roadtrip to Shikoku to celebrate yet another long weekend! Our exact destinations were undecided, but we had an idea of what we wanted to see....we wanted to cover as much of Western Shikoku as possible, and we ended up doing a pretty good job of it! Shikoku is the fourth largest of Japan's islands.

The route from Honshu (the main island) to Shikoku took across many bridges linking the many islands in the Inland Sea (where I live). The bridge tolls are ridiculously expensive, so this ended up being the most costly part of the entire trip. Our first stop was Matsuyama, Ehime prefecture. Matsuyama is the biggest city on Shikoku, at 470 000 people. We took a chair lift up a hill to see the Matsuyama castle. It was under construction, so we ended up just walking around the grounds...desperately trying to keep cool. It was an unbelievably hot day! We didn't hang around in the city very long....the heat drove us away. We next went to Ishite-ji, which is one of the sacred

Matsuyama castle

Tanya, Kate, me and Dana

temples of Shikoku. There are 88 sacred temples on the island, which many people visit as a pilgrammage. At Ishite-ji there is a three-storey pagoda, which is overlooked by a large Buddha figure that is way up in the hills. Later in the afternoon we made it to the small town Uchiko. We wandered the neighbourhood and found a gigantic Buddha! The main street is called Yokaichi, and it's lined with traditional buildings...very quaint. The giant Buddha called "The Statue of Buddha in Nirvana" is at the Bhoshoji temple, built in 1441. We ended the day in Uwajima. It was a major mission to find a place to stay...but we ended up in an air-conditioned Business Hotel with real beds and private showers! Perfect! Our night on the town included an izakaya and kareoke bar --Japanese style!

On Saturday we stayed in Uwajima for the morning to visit the Taga-jinja and sex museum. A long time ago many Shinto shrines were connected to fertility. This particular shrine is one of the few remaining. The museum next to it is full of artifacts including vases, clothing, prints, and sculptures collected from all around the world. The man who owns the

Matsuyama castle

museum has dedicated his life to this collection and studying sex from ancient to modern times. We continued our drive along the coast until with hit the southern most point at Ashizuri-misaki. The coast drive was beautiful! The blue water and surf was exciting for me...but quite normal for the Australian and New Zealand girls! At Ashizuri-misaki there is a lighthouse and beautiful view of the ocean. Our next stop was was Tatsukushi, where we took a glass-bottom boat ride to see the corals and fish in the bay. The ride was cut short, because a lot of coral was destroyed by the typhoon a couple of weeks ago, and the currents we still dangerously strong. We were planning on staying there for the night, but decided to keep driving to cut the distance for Sunday. We ended in Kochi city in Kochi-prefecture. We found a Japanese style hotel (futons) to spend the night.

Sunday morning we were woken up my a little old Japanese lady in our room at the hotel! She needed the car keys, because our car was blocking someone in! When she returned with the keys, she gave us each a can of Pocari Sweat

a forest of Buddhas

as a 'peace offering' for waking us up! It was hilarious! We walked around the Kochi Sunday Market on the main street. The road was filled with vendors selling fruit, vegetables and home-made goods. We drove through central Shikoku on the way home, through the mountains. We went to Saijo, back in Ehime prefecture to visit the Asahi Beer Brewery. The tour was free, and ended with a couple of glasses of beer and snacks. Not bad! Poor Dana was pinned with the Designated Driver button, so all she got was juice! (There's a zero alcohol tolerance in Japan)

Our three day mission was a complete success. We traveled major distances, saw many beautiful sights in three prefectures and had a great time. Yet again, another fabulous long weekend!

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