Matsuyama

 Leaving Hiroshima, we manage to catch the second last ferry to Matsuyama by the skin of our teeth. Then we pass  an incredible two hour ferry ride through the islands of the Inland sea  with the sun setting along side out boat. The Mountains loom ever more purple in the distance, until as the sun has set they are barely distinguishable from the sky. It was a sublime journey, if a short one, and one of the most memorable landscapes of the trip for me.

We arrive at Matsuyama Ferry port just after dark,  The shores of Shikoku are quiet and still.

 Probably the main reason any foreigners come to Matsuyama is to go to Dogo Onsen. Dogo Onsen is supposedly the Oldest Onsen in Japan, with a history that stretches back over 3000 years. After a long day of exploring Hiroshima, and getting all the way to Matsuyama, the only sensible thing to do was to go to the Onsen as soon as we got into the city.

We met a handful of helpful locals who helped us to get to the city from the port, and then a lovely international student from Malaysia offered to guide us through the city towards the onsen. She ended up leading us towards the Castle instead of the Onsen, but with some help from another local we managed to get on the right tram to Dogo.

We got to Dogo with barely ten minutes to spare before final entry. Let me tell you there is nothing more rewarding for the struggle to get there than plunging into a hot Onsen. If you do find yourself in Japan, you MUST find some time to go to one

An Onsen is fundamentally a Hot Spring but there are many types of Onsen. Dogo is very simply an old and grand wooden bath house with a collection of large communal baths made of stone, their water fed from an underground spring.

We have gone to others with various baths and outdoor facilities, places where you could spend a whole day sitting around relaxing.

The one common feature you will experience in a Japanese Onsen: Every one just walks around totally naked. It certainly takes a minute to get used to just stripping down and sitting round in a bath with a bunch of naked Japanese men of all ages, but after the first 20 minutes at Dogo, it started to seem perfectly normal. Every Onsen since has felt perfectly natural.

Dogo Onsen in the day. 

We stayed in the Sprawling and charming Matsuyama Youth Hostel. As close as it is to Dogo Onsen, it was very hard to find in the dark. After getting some desperatley hurried directions from the staff at the onsen, I ran through the night looking for the hostel. (It's amazing how well you can focus and on a Foreign language when you have 10 minutes until your youth hostel closes and no idea how to get there)

I had to stop and ask for more directions from a local family, and being helpful Shikoku-ans  they ended up driving all three of us to the hostel.

The castle was brilliant in the late April Sun, with flowers in full bloom and the greenery glowing

The next day we spent climbing up the large hill in the middle of Matsuyama. On top of this small mountain sits Matsuyama, which is the only castle we've seen that hasn't been turned into a musuem on the inside. The Castle retains its wooden construction. However, about a dozen signs through out the castle describe each part getting hit by lightning and burning to the ground.

The wording in English gives one the impression that the various wings of the Castle were each struck by lightning near the end of the 1700s. In reality there werent a dozen lighting stikes, but probably one which burned down about half of the castle.

The view from the Castle was pretty fantastic. Why don't we have hills in Toronto!? Only valleys. 

Brief as it was, I really liked my stay in Shikoku. The weather was fantastic, and Matusyama is a really quaint place. A smilar sized city in Canada would be really boring, but in Japan it's compact, there's plenty happening and it's still a very exciting place.