I indulged...twice.

Day 3

5am an alarm is ringing. Oh no, I have just fallen asleep!!

Another sleepless night. I slept 1h, woke up at 1am and last time I glanced at the phone it was 4h30. Damn jetleg!

Get bags and out of the door. Fast walk to Tokyo station to get Nozomi Shinkasen which will take us to Fukuyama in 3h. We got to the station less than 15min to departure. Japanese are punctual so we needed to get to our train car fast. Our seats weren't together. Jorge and Will ran with their bikes and bags on their arms to car 12, me and Manuel ran with our big backpacks to car 8. Nozomi is a massive train with 16 cars! When we got there we looked at the tickets and we mistook the seats with the car numbers. We were all in car 4!!! S***! We ran for our lives, less than 5min for the train to depart. We made it with little time to spare and I was drenched in sweat. Uff!

I was so tired I slept the 3h of the journey.

On arrival to Fukuyama, a church with a funny name: C'est la vie!

In Fukuyama station Jorge and Will tried to put their bikes together in the station so it would be easier to push them out. A station employee came out very stressed saying it was forbidden to have bikes in the station. It was easy to understand because he was flustered, was pointing to the bikes and was doing a cross sign with his arms (Japanese signal for 'no', 'do not have', 'cannot do').

They put the bikes together fast and had to carry them out of the station on their shoulders.

Breakfast was the main order of the day. We were starved! I tried a green tea latte and it really wasn't good. Manuel liked it though.

Jorge and Will headed on on their bikes. Me and Manuel picked up the car at the Nissan rent-a-car near the station.

Renting a car wasn't very daunting this time. We ordered online and they have forms in English. The only annoying bit is the need Japanese have to wait for you to drive off and keep bowing until they see you no more. It's very respectful but it means I have no time to get the sunglasses on, adjust seat and mirrors and setup the GPS. One feels compelled to move on quickly so they don't stand forever. It also means you stop on the next parking space and do all this things out of their sight.

Today's drive is an easy one. Cross the Seto Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku islands. This expressway consists of a 46.6km road for cars (Shimanami Highway) with a separate 70km road for cyclists (Nishi-Seto Expressway) that crosses 9 islands and has 10 bridges, including the world's longest series of suspension bridges. It is an easy and scenic drive with the road criss-crossing between the beautiful islands.

We stopped at the last service station for some lunch with view.

The restaurant is setup with a machine where you choose your lunch. It gives you a two-part ticket with the number of what you ordered and then you wait for the number to be called. Our Japanese is limited so this could prove to be a problem. Fortunately we were the only foreigners around so the shop employee looked and signalled at us when our food was ready.

We had Katsu curry and Udon noodles. Food was delicious and it was cheap. Water and tea free as usual. If this was in an European motorway service station it would have cost a lot more!

As the only foreigners in the room, we were clearly the centre of attention. Manuel decided to eat his curry with chopsticks and an old Japanese lady approached him with a spoon. Manuel is always being corrected! Curry is the only food in Japan you don't use chopsticks with as you need to make the most out of the sauce.

Reaching the end of the highway and the toll gates were an adventure. There I was driving slowly whilst Manuel trying to figure out which one was the cash payment toll gate instead of the ETC (a bit like Via Verde in Portugal, an electronic device installed in the car that charges your bank account directly when you go through the toll gate and enables you to keep driving without stopping). We were not in agreement on which was the right gate so I decided on the middle lane. Wrong choice!

There was no cash payment machine so we stopped there feeling quite stupid. Suddenly one of the toll gate employees comes running and signals us to move forward and park further down on the side of the road. He runs to the car and gets our ticket to check how much we owe. Than runs back to give us the change. This was done very swiftly, amongst many 'sumimasen gozaimasu' (so sorry!) from us and much bowing and 'arigato gozaimasu' (thank you!) from him. Where else in the world would you get this kind of customer service with a smile and no shouting?

I was wondering why such a scenic road didn't have much traffic on a weekend and I soon found out why. The toll was a whopping ¥4830 (£33, €39, $43)!

On the way to Matsuyama we stopped at Ishitegawa Dam which created a very pretty lake, Shirasagi lake. There is a viewing platform with good views of the lake and damn.

Swallows were flying around and I tried to get some pictures but they are really fast so I waited for them to land on the rail.

Dogo Onsen near Matsuyama is our stop for the night. We were there 2 years ago and enjoyed the onsen feel so much we decided to return.

It took us a while to find our accommodation. Spa Ryokan Dugoya is a ryokan (old style Japanese house) set between tall hotels and a (currently) construction site. We got this massive room with an entrance room, a living/sleeping area and a balcony area overlooking the rock garden. The ryokan employee is very friendly and speaks English well. He is young and his very yellow hair matches perfectly with the 2 long surf boards tucked away in a corner of the garden.

Matsuyama is not far from the coast and Shikoku being an island provides the perfect environment for water activities. I had planned to do some scuba diving but I could not get a reply to any e-mails I sent to several diving centres. I guess you either write in Japanese or you arrange it when you arrive.

We left the baggage at the accommodation and headed off to the pretty city centre of Dogo Onsen, which is exactly as we left it 2 years ago. Same arcades, same shops, people walking around in yukatas and the public baths still gather many tourists for a selfie.

Whilst waiting for the boys to arrive we went hunting for a pharmacy for Manuel. Yep, today is his day of being sick. Earache it seems. The tourism office is always a good place to ask for help. The employee there was very polite and directed us to the nearby pharmacy. We went past it and didn't even realise it had a big green cross sign. We tried to explain in English and gestures that Manuel had an earache and he wanted ear drops. The answer was in Japanese but clear: no era drops, doctor first. Manuel wasn't in the mood to chase a doctor so he decided to take ibuprofen for a couple of days.

As we were walking in the arcades we saw the tourism office employee running to us and asking if we had found it. How thoughtful! We told him that they wouldn't give us ear drops so he gave us an alternative: a big drugstore less than 10 min walk. Why not? He gave us a map with the directions and it wasn't difficult to find.

A big drugstore it was but still they refused to give us ear drops. We tried to find some kind of hypertonic solution to irrigate the ears but all was in Japanese. Manuel resorted to comparing the chemical composition of all the bottles and finally got one that looked like it. I also found pipettes so Manuel got both of them. Let's see how it goes in the next few days.

Jorge and Will arrived at the accommodation shortly before us and we got in our yukatas and headed to the onsen.

Dogo onsen public baths are THE destination here. I am not going to lie: they are quite touristic and the employees treat it as a business. However, the building is a gem, the public baths are beautiful, the feel is genuine and the water is damn hot!

This time we did not try the more expensive private baths as they are not as pretty and are not worth the money. We went straight to the big public baths where the same old Japanese ladies had gathered for some end of the day catch-up. It felt like I was picking up the scene where I left it 2 years ago. Amazing!

There was a really old lady who braved standing right where the water comes out (and is hottest!) and then had a good scrub on the adjacent shower area and managed to splash everyone around. Due to her age no one complained, obviously!

A group of ladies were talking the afternoon away. One of them breaching the rules by having nickers on. She must be quite a special person as she started doing ab exercises by the side of the bath. Quite odd!

Anyone going to this onsen beware that there are no toiletries or towels for free. Please bring your own or you'll need to pay.

Onsen season has started well. I was the only non-Japanese in the baths!

Yukatas on and we went looking for dinner. We settled on a small restaurant that looked populated by locals and had a fair amount of sea food on the counter. Noodles it was for the boys but I was curious about the 'catch of the day'. I ordered sea snails and barnacles. Barnacles are a seasonal and local delicacy in southern Portugal and are what the English call 'an acquired taste'. They taste like the sea and I love the sea! What's there not to like? I indulged... twice.

Dessert after dinner: sesame ice-cream (toasted the darker and non-toasted the lighter). Another acquired taste. We'll pass it next time.