A Day in Matsuyama

So, the rain that was supposed to materialize never did, so we ended up with a cloudy, but very pleasant day to explore Matsuyama. First up, we headed to Dogokoen, a park just in front of the onsen market street that houses the ruins of Yuzuki Castle, a predecessor to Matsuyama Castle. Mostly, the ruins are just overgrown, but you can still see some bits of foundation. There's also a number of nice areas in the park, including a Gate Ball field. What is a Gate Ball field? Why, a place where they play Gate Ball. What is Gate Ball? I had no idea until today. Go here for more information. Who are "they" that play Gate Ball here in Shikoku? Mostly older to elderly people. In Fukuyama, we passed a very large Gate Ball park with a covered field that was holding some major competition, complete with trophies. It was quite a bizarre sight. We didn't take any pictures of Gate Ball, since the people were pretty serious about it and I didn't want to make anyone feel self-conscious. We did take pictures of the rest of the park, though.

Lots of beautiful garden areas and tons of flowering lily pads

The very first hot spring source in Matsuyama. 

There were museums, as well, but we decided to get going and take a pilgrimage to Temple #51, Ishite-ji, so o-henro Sumi could stop by, make an offering and get her book stamped. It was a short walk (about a mile) from our hotel. Along the way, we got a good look at the Matsuyama Daibutsu (Large Buddha) on top of a hill overlooking the city.

16m tall. This picture was taken from roughly two miles away.

The temple itself was very busy. Most of the temples we have visited in Japan were mostly tourist attractions with some Buddhist activity. In Shikoku, it is the opposite. Pilgrims come to pray throughout the day, ringing the large bell, then reciting the Heart Sutra, sometimes in front of several shrines, and other devout Buddhists come on their own to pray. We tourists are in the minority, which is rather refreshing.

Front corner of the temple grounds. There were many more statues and other adornments at this temple than I'm used to seeing in Japanese Buddhist temples.

The Pilgrim passes through the gate.

Small jade statue in front of the main gate representing a folk tale I should remember, but don't.

Three story pagoda

VERY rare example of women in Buddhist works in Japan.

Another resident of the temple

After gaining enlightenment, as well as a stamp in her book and yet more souvenirs (the temples love pilgrims like Sumi!) we headed back towards the station to catch a train to downtown and Matsuyama Castle. The whole Dogo Onsen area is famous, both for the onsen and for Botchan, a novel written by Natsume Souseki in 1906. It's one of those books every Japanese school kid has had to read and write an essay on, one of the most read books in all of Japan. Botchan (like Souseki himself) used to hang out at Dogo Onsen, so there are many little things in the area that pay homage to him, such as one of the trains, dubbed Botchan Ressha (more here)

An original Botchan Ressha from 1888. Still runs every day!

Great little station, Dogo Onsen Station is the end of the line, has two tracks and only single car trams run in and out of it.

Ten minutes and we were downtown. The castle is itself in a park surrounded by downtown, so we took a short walk up to the entrances where you could get on a ropeway or chair lift (chair lift?) to head up to the castle. It was just a 10 minute walk up a hill, but we decided to rest our legs and take the ropeway. At the last minute, we (I) decided the chair lift would be more fun. It was certainly that, but it was also quite a surprise.

Tucked between boutique stores and a post office, a cable car station.

Now, let me point out a few things about this chair lift picture above.
1) No strap harness or anything keeping your butt in the chair.
2) The elevation that you can't see here extends up to about 300 feet or so
3) About ten feet below the chairs is a chain link "net" with steel beams to catch your belongings (or you) if something were to fall
4) I swear the chairs are recycled from my old middle school desks. Thin plastic that bends and groans when you move.

So, this contraption would never, ever be allowed in the US, yet retired Japanese tourists were happily riding it up and down. I loved it.

The castle was very impressive. Easily the largest we'd ever visited and clearly built for defense. There were three separate gates as you scaled the hill towards the main castle building and spiraling paths approaching each one. And the walls were enormous.

View from the lower grounds of the castle. You can see the city of Matsuyama and the coast beyond

The main castle, complete with mascot. 

The second approach

Go ahead, fill free

So, the armor was too small for big American Gaijin, but not for little Korean-American Gaijin!

Some mikan gelato for the hard working samurai

The museum inside the castle was quite nice, as well. They had "Extra Big" slippers for us monster gaijin (usually my relatively small American size 9.5 feet can't fit in the normal slippers), though there was not a single doorway I could get through without ducking, and I'm just on the tall side of average at 6'. The exhibits were in English and Japanese and the castle was very well displayed.

Time for lunch! We saw a Coco Curry House on the way in and we had yet to try one. We attempted to a while back in Akihabara, but it was so busy we couldn't get in. The curry was good and, amazingly, spicy! The Japanese usually think food is hot if you add salt. This was hot enough to make a spicy food lover like myself sweat!

Sumi's Level 2 Spicy Chicken and Vegetable Curry with a side Potato Salad (a scoop of potato salad on top of a salad)

My Level 5 Spicy Vegetable Curry. You are required to prove you can eat one of these before they will allow you to order Levels 6-10. I don't know that I would want to order anything spicier than 5. Not shown: my side Egg Salad (cabbage salad with a hard boiled egg)

So, we still had yet to try the onsen, but needed to get some laundry done before tomorrow, so we got directions from the front desk and carried our laundry bags over to the Matsuyama Coin Laundry:

Yup, that's it

A hallway with some washers and dryers. This is bigger than most laundromats in Japan.

And finally, off we went to soak in Dogo Onsen!

We got in just before the high school field trip did. Seriously.

The onsen was nice, but certainly nothing special. The staff spoke zero English, but had a few pieces of paper with some instructions. We mostly got it right, though no one told Sumi that there were three baths she could try, so she ended up waiting for me for almost 20 minutes while I bath-hopped, assuming she was doing the same. We received a pamphlet afterwards helpfully explaining all of that to her. I think the allure is more historic for Japanese visitors. Personally, I prefer the baths in Beppu and Hokkaido, but it was still nice and relaxing. Plus we got to see the emperor's bath and chambers, including the emperor's personal toilet, which is a lacquer hole in the floor and a removable sand-filled box underneath. Yes, the emperor of Japan used a litter box.

To bed early for us. Tomorrow, if it's not storming, we are looking to do a long 100km ride into Uwajima, famous for many things, but thanks to YouTube, mostly for their fertility shrine and annual fertility festival.

And, the weird and/or cute from Japan. First, from yesterday, the little baby chick mascot that Sumi took a shine to is Bary-san, the mascot of Imabari. He has his own Facebook page. Now some more pictures:

Toshiaki-kun, the Matsuyama Castle Samurai mascot

Sumi and friends

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they didn't secure naming rights.