I'm back from my Golden Week vacation! Quickly, last week I had Wednesday off, so I went back to 河内富園 (Kawachi Fuji-en, Kawachi wisteria garden) with Leah and some of her Japanese friends. We had a great time and it was so nice to go back again so soon! We had lunch at a famous champon restaurant and spent the rest of the day at the natural history museum in Yahata. It was a great day off in the middle of the week!
Friday is when my real vacation stated, though! After school I went home, gathered my things, and met Juha, Kyoko, and Caol at Kokura port. We caught an overnight ferry from the port that left close to 10 PM. We stayed outside for the launch and enjoyed watching Kitakyushu's city lights before finally passing under the Kanmon Straights Bridge and leaving the city completely. The boat had a big room full of mats and everyone was assigned a number corresponding to their sleeping mat. The floor was a bit hard, but it was surprisingly comfortable! We slept until about 4 AM the next morning when the lights were turned on to prepare for our arrival. Since we couldn't check into our hotel and nothing was open that early, we stayed on the boat until about 7 AM when we ventured out for breakfast. We caught a train to Matsuyama city, had some coffee, and went to our hostel to drop off our bags. Our hostel, the Sen Guesthouse, was in Dogo, another area of the city, so we had to take a small tram. Arriving in Dogo was amazing! It's a very famous onsen area because it is the setting for a very famous book called 坊っちゃん (Botchan). The titular character Botchan frequents the onsen in Dogo, making it very famous for many Japanese people. There are many references to Botchan around Dogo including a small train that can run on the tram tracks, a clock tower, and a foot bath. After looking around the area a bit, we went to drop off our bags.
We couldn't check into the Sen Guesthouse early, but they took our bags and gave us some ideas of where to go. We started by visiting Dogo park and it was so beautiful we ended up staying there for a few hours. After leaving the park we walked through a few temples. We started at the Isaniwa Shrine. Shikoku (the island we were on) is famous in Japan for the 88 Temple Pilgrimage. It is a 750 mile long trail through 88 temples all associated with the Buddhist Monk Kukai. Because of it's length many people tour the temples via bus, but some people still walk the Pilgrimage. We were not there for the pilgrimage, but we still decided to visit one of the temples. Although the first shrine we visited was not on the pilgrimage, we next visited the Ishite Temple and it was beautiful! We saw people making the pilgrimage dressed in white robes and straw hats with walking sticks. We burned some incense at the temple before moving on. We found some caves in the back of the temple and followed them out back to a third shrine. It looked a little run down like it hadn't been maintained in a few years, but it was still very nice.
We still had some time before our hostel would be ready, so we walked to Matsuyama Castle. We took a chairlift up to where the castle sat on the mountain and explored for a few hours. Some people were dressed in old gate keeping uniforms and it was really fun! After the castle we headed back to the hotel to check in. We got in and our room was amazing! It was one of the best places I've ever stayed. The owners gave us great suggestions for things to do and we decided on heading to the onsen. Dogo onsen was a bit crowded, so we decided to go next door to Tsubaki no Yu, another bath house. It was a great bath and we all decided on dinner after we met back up. We tried some sushi for dinner in the area and headed back to the guesthouse. We brought a few beers and went up to the roof, where the owners had told us about some hammocks and a great view. We relaxed and hung our for a bit enjoying the fresh air and views of the castle before finally heading to bed.
We slept in the next morning and decided what to do for the day. The owners had told us about a boat festival happening in Hojo/Kashima. Kyoko, Juha, and I all decided to go, but Caol hung back to explore the city more. We took a train out to Hojo and a ferry over to Kashima. The whole trip only took about half an hour, it was very close to the city! The island was beautiful and there were many wisteria flowers blooming. The festival started at the Kashima Shrine where people carried big bamboo springs with flags tied all over it. Children also sat on floats that men carried up to the shrine. Eventually, everything was carried down to the water and loaded onto the boats. Three festival boats were launched. The first carried the bamboo, had people drumming, and had children dancing at the front and back. The second two were not decorated, but tied to the first and carried two お神輿 (omikoshi, a divine palanquin used during ceremonies or when moving temples). We got a small boat just for the three of us to follow the festival boats. By this point, it had started raining, but thankfully our small boat had a canvas roof. The driver of our was very nice and got us really close to everything! He even dropped us off near the train station instead of back on Kashima island like he was supposed to. It was a really great festival and we had a lot of fun!
By the time we went back to the hostel it was almost dinner time. We meet back up with Caol for dinner and then went back to the hostel. The owners were showing a moving and we wanted to see it! We watched 思い出のマーニー ( Omoide No Mani, When Marnie Was There), a Ghibli Movie that currently had an exhibit in the Matsuyama museum. The movie was great and it was really nice hanging out with the owners and some other people from our hostel. We were getting up early the next morning, so we decided to head to bed after the movie.
The next day we got up early and headed to Dogo Onsen. It was packed because of the holiday. Although most Japanese people know it from Botchan, Dogo Onsen was also the inspiration for the onsen in Spirited Away. The bath was beautiful and the inside does have a bit of an otherworldly feel to it. After the bath we took the tram into the city center for lunch and to see the museum. The exhibit for the movie we'd seen last night was prominently featured. The exhibit was incredible! The had perfect scale models and even entire rooms you could walk through from the movie. Throughout the exhibit there were projections of the characters that would only play for a few seconds every minute and it really felt like you were in the movie. It was one of the coolest exhibits I've ever seen and I'm so glad we went!
After the museum we went back towards the castle. We didn't go all the way back up, but we walked along the shopping street we'd missed earlier. Everyone was pretty tired so they caught the tram home, but I was still enjoying the nice weather and decided to walk. It took almost an hour at my leisurely pace, but I saw some small shrines and got side-tracked walking through a park. I finished up all my souvenir shopping on the way back and it was almost sunset by the time we got back to the hotel. We sat and talked with the owners for a while before decided to head up to the roof to watch the sunset. A bunch of other people staying in the hotel came too and we all had a great time! We met another guy from our room and after the sun was down headed out to dinner with him. We went back towards the city center and found an amazing Indian restaurant. We walked around for a bit before heading back to the guesthouse. We played cards up on the roof for a bit longer before bed.
Our last day in Ehime we decided to take the train an hour south for another festival. Ikazaki is a very small town, but they have a huge kite festival every year. There were hundreds of kites and even a giant kite that had to be lifted up with a crane! Caol and I helped hold the rope for the giant kite and tried to help it fly. After the giant kite flying, all the smaller kites came out. There is a big kite fight as part of the festival and all the kites had gagari, a cutting tool, attached to their strings. The kites would fly into each other and try to cut each others strings! It was the first time I'd ever seen a kite fight and the festival was really amazing!
By the time we got back to Matsuyama City, it was getting late. We decided to take the bus to one last onsen before we had to leave. The onsen was only ten minutes away, so we had just enough time. This last onsen was also amazing! The baths were outside and they had all different baths, almost like a spa. There was a Jacuzzi, mineral bath, and even private tubs. It was the perfect way to end the trip. We grabbed our bags from the guesthouse when we finished and had dinner near Matsuyama station. We got back to the ferry a little early and found our spots. We again went outside to say goodbye to Ehime, but went to bed pretty soon after we left the dock.
Yesterday was also a day off for me, but I mostly slept and cleaned. I had such an amazing Golden Week, but I needed a bit of a rest! Today and tomorrow I'm back at Asakawa, but Saturday I will take another ferry to Korea. This one is much shorter and will just be a one night trip! I'll let you know how it goes on Monday.
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