Emperor 3 times

Day 10

Bye bye Hiroshima!

Today we took the tram to the other Hiroshima port (Ujina Port) and embarqued on a Super Jet ferry for Matsuyama, in Shikoku island. There were only 11 passengers so plenty of space. We sat down and buckled up. Yes, it had seat belts. Have you ever seen a boat with seat belts? We started to worry thinking we would be sick with the speed and the movement. Nothing happened though. It was a comfortable and fast 1h10min trip. TV was set to the American Baseball League. How boring! The tickets were expensive (¥6850 each) but worth the money.

On arrival to Matsuyama we had to walk to the nearest train station to get to the city center. There are water bottles near people's houses and street lamps everywhere but we have no idea why.

It was a 15min walk to the train, another 15min to the center of Matsuyama and a final 15min to the hotel.

Check-in done we headed to Matsuyama castle. There is a garden on the bottom of the castle mount with cherry trees that looked like a good pic-nic spot so we had lunch watching the castle and then braved the ascent. Why are japanese castles always so high?!?

On the way up we stopped at Ninomaru Shiseki Tei-en which is in the grounds where the palace stood but is now a garden. It has many ponds and a huge cistern (remain from the palace) with plenty of water. This means that mosquitoes are abundant so keep walking, dare not to stop!

Up to the castle, about 900m, stairs all the way. What's up with us and stairs?!? Painfully we went up. There is a good view of the city from the top. Hiroshima is reported to be seen in a good clear day, not cloudy like today. Plenty of cherry trees in bloom and shedding their flowers with the wind. Very romantic!

We decided not to go into the castle as there didn't seem to be much to see inside and came down another way. Down a ramp (no stairs!) we crossed path with many more people than on the way up. It was a steep ramp though so legs continued to complaint.

Near the bottom we saw a man in wheelchair going up. Really?!? He was in a group and was being helped by the others but considering he had at least 500m to go... Good luck! They were all merry so extra points for optimism.

Pit stop at the hotel to collect our onsen stuff and we headed to Dogo Onsen, one of the oldest onsen in Japan.

As we looked on a map in the street, near the tram stop, a woman (asian looking but with an american accent) gave us her day pass for public transportation. She was leaving Matsuyama and did not need it anymore, we welcomed it, one less ticket to buy! Thank you.

We took the tram. Explanations were in japanese so I wasn't sure if we were supposed to pay for the tickets on boarding or on arrival. I tried to put a ¥100 coin in what looked like the ticket machine but all it did was to give me 10 coins of ¥10. We had found the coin change dispenser! A japanese man signed to us that payment was on arrival. Ok then, just like in Hiroshima.

It was a nice tram ride and we arrived at Dogo Onsen station, the last of the line. It's a western-style wooden station. 

Nearby there is an old steam train very popular for pictures. We had also seen a replica of it in the streets of Matsuyama with what looked like tourists. It is a  cute steam train, smaller than the ones seen in Britain.

The center of Dogo Onsen is small: train station, steam train, clock, foot spa, and that's it.

There is a shopping arcade between the center and Dogo Onsen Honkan with very appetising items. So much so that I opened the shopping spree after the onsen and before dinner. Happy happy!

Dogo Onsen Honkan is a lush 19th century onsen house and it is as expected an old beautiful building. 

There are many different bathing plans so we took a bit to decide. Eventually we decided to go for the middle plan which allows entry to the big public baths (kami-no-yu, aka water of the Gods), to the private baths (tama-no-yu, aka water of the spirits), tea and biscuit post-bath  and tour of the Emperor's bath.

The rest room was a mixed area with pillows to seat and correspondent basket to leave your clothes. Women had a small separate area to change, man had not. The boys had to change under their yukatas in full view! They told us to keep our knickers under the yukata but I would recommend taking them off before heading to the baths as they will get wet if you swap between different baths.

We started with the more private baths, which were no more than small concrete baths in a small room with almost no one in them. The women's was about 2x2m bath stuck in a corner and the men's was a little bigger. Water temperature was about right.

The public baths were a lot more lively. They were full of people at that time, mainly japanese, only 2-3 foreigners. The women's bath was a big bath with a small statue and waterfalls in the middle. Plenty of older women, some of them quite old, it had the feel of being frequented by local people. Both had two scenes painted in tiles on the wall, the two legends of how the onsen appeared (if you want to know the stories, pop into the onsen!). We enjoyed these a lot more and would not recommend to buy a ticket for the private baths at all. 

There is shampoo and soap (not shower gel) on the private baths but no toileteries on the public baths so make sure to bring your own.

We were given tea and a biscuit in the rest room and then headed to the Emperor's Bath.

Dogo Onsen Honkan is the only onsen that has quarters for the emperor's use only. A small tour of them is made by a very funny man obssessed with numbers. You have to hear him to understand but he makes the sentence 'Emperor 3 times' sound absolutely hilarious! He showed us the room where the Emperor ate, rested, his private bath and the toilet. It was built 160 years ago and only 2 emperor's visited, one once and the other twice. This meaning it is imaculate! He also told us how many times the emperors used the table to eat, how many times they used the chair to rest, how many times they bathed but when it came to the toilet, he missed saying how many times it was used. We were very disappointed! 

The Emperor's bath was only used 10 times so you could see how new it was. However, even with only 10 bathes the 1m water line was visible. The toilet is a dry toilet, a hole in the floor with a sand box in the bottom. It has a lacquered edge so I don't envy who has to clean the hit and miss!

We left in high spirits and refreshed.

We looked for a place to eat on the shopping arcade. We found a japanese looking restaurant with the typical plastic menus outside, it is a very japanese thing and excellent for tourists (see picture below). 

I was expecting to see the kitchen and a counter with maybe 1-2 tables. We opened te door and it was rather different. It was very simple looking, with westerner tables on the right and japanese seating on the left. The japanese tables were in individual boxes two by two. The tables were lined with two plastic cloths! It looked like a family business with mother, father and a boy (son?).

Manuel was quite hungry so apart from a dish each he also ordered two dishes of sushi. The boy brought out our food and every time he smiled. We think he was making fun of us. These foreigners ordered more food then they can eat! Well, we weren't going to give the other cheek! 

It was true. The food was way too much! We managed to eat it all apart from half a bowl of rice. I thought my dish was sashimi only with no rice and asked for an extra portion. The sashimi actually had rice underneath and the extra bowl proved a bit too much.

Feeling a bit like whales we draged ourselves to the tram and back to the hotel. It would have been nice to fall asleep in our beds straight away but we had washing to do and a coin laundry at the hotel (1 washing machine and 1 drying machine) so it wasn't to be missed.

The washing machine was a 4.5kg one and we had lot of clothes and decided to give it a go and fill it to the brim. Result was that we had to wash it again! Then the drying. We had to dry it in two cycles. It needed more cycles but it was almost 1am, Jorge had fallen asleep by now and me and Manuel were not in the mood to wait any longer. Also, by the time the second cycle finished there was a japanese girl with the foot on the door, wet clothes basket on her harm, sleepy eyes but an expresion of 'I am fed up of waiting, get out of here and let me finish my laundry!'. We got the hint, quickly removed the clothes from the machine and left with the tail between our legs.