I woke, drank coffee, read the news, etc., before heading out the door for the day. I walked over to the Matsuyama city station, and explored the small underground shopping strip where there was reportedly a henro supply store. Indeed there was, and I was rather shocked by the usurious prices. I didn’t make any purchases at the time, choosing instead to sit with prices for a day. I picked up some superglue at a 100 yen store next door, and walked the arcade popping into a drug store and a Daiso to browse the aisles. I bought a 100 yen “long” towel to pull double duty as a onsen accessory and as a head wrap. As part of this series of chores, I also scouted out a movie theater.
Having skipped breakfast, I was fairly ravenous and kept foraging for food. In the drug store, I grabbed a protein bar. When I passed a “Yokohama Melon Bun” shop that was just opening, I grabbed one of those. On the final walk over to my target destination–Dogo–I grabbed a sugar drink from a vending machine (a very delicious Japanese “orangina”). Still hungry, I was thinking about lunch, but reaching Dogo Park first, I did a loop around the hill (that reportedly used to have a small family castle) and climbed the hill for some views of the city. The park and general area was full of school age children on an art field trip. I got lots of “Hello, my name is …” from the young artists.
Walking over to Dogo’s arcade, I passed by the Botchan Karakuri Clock, which just happened to be in the middle of its “cuckoo” clock performance on the scale one would expect from Disneyland. “Botchan” is the name of a novel set in Matsuyama by that novelist whose home I visited in Kumamoto. I’m definitely going to have to read some of his books to see why he has such a legacy across western Japan.
I walked up and down the arcade twice looking at the restaurant menus and trying to determine what lunch time set meal would give me the best value. Noticing that several restaurants were advertising the same dish (Teimeshi–a sort of sashimi on rice with raw egg) I went for that and was not disappointed.
My ultimate goal was to try the Dogo Onsen, reportedly the oldest hot spring in Japan (if not the world) with a more than 3,000 history. However, to kill time while digesting, I popped over to two nearby Shinto shrines, both steep climbs up neighboring hills. The Dogo Onsen was undergoing renovation, so only the basic pool was open (as opposed to the private baths or options to chill out upstairs). Much like Beppu, it was basically just a little bathhouse, but it was very well done. Natural light filtered in from above, the bath was filled through a carved and inscribed block of stone. Behind the stone, the majority of the wall was a porcelain mosaic of a cranes (the legend is that the onsen was discovered by seeing a crane with an injured leg resting there).
Though it had been chilly at night, the sun was strong and the day was warm. For some reason, I had chosen to wear jeans, so walking around again with damp hair felt good. I decided to get some ice cream, and had another momentous decision to make as almost every shop along the arcade each sold their own specialty ice cream. Seriously, local citrus fruit, matcha, soy sauce, black sesame, honey, etc. After an ice cream, I decided to keep onsen hopping and try another one in the area. It was also quite nice, if a little basic.
I hopped on a tram to take me all the way back to the JR station, but because I was distracted by a specialty train (a gift from Germany from the 1880s), I didn’t notice that some trams went to the JR station while others went to the city station, so I had to walk the rest of the way back. Despite eating so much throughout the day, I was still inexplicable ravenous and bought a lot of food on my grocery store expedition–making my own curry rice with omelet, popcorn chicken, and shredded cabbage. I watched “Captain America: Civil War” to prepare for the next day and went to bed relatively early.
| Superglue | 108 |
| Powerbar | 95 |
| Towel | 108 |
| Melon bread | 180 |
| Vending machine drink | 100 |
| Lunch | 1188 |
| Dogo Onsen (Bath of the Spirit) | 410 |
| Ice cream | 350 |
| Onsen (Bath of the Tree of Heaven) | 410 |
| Tram | 160 |
| Groceries | 1345 |
| Total: | 4454 JPY (285 RMB) (USD 42.35) |
I made breakfast in the guesthouse the next morning (having spent a little extra money at the supermarket to stock up), and otherwise passed the morning quietly until about 9am. The Dutch guy and I headed back over to the city’s central arcade to watch “Avengers: Endgame” at the cinema I scouted out. It was the most expensive ticket to the small screen and some of the midrange speakers kept dying during the first half of the film meaning that the dialogue sometimes sounded like it was coming through a well. I’m honestly surprised the theater manager didn’t apologize afterwards.
After the movie, I still wanted to check out Matsuyama’s castle and continue my “shopping spree,” so I parted ways with the Dutch guy and headed north. I popped into a Chococro chain cafe to take advantage of their “early bird” specials for a sandwich, a chocolate croissant, and a coffee by way of a light lunch. I did the rounds at two department stores and eventually found a specialty outdoor sporting goods store, but the prices were pretty insanely high. For my upcoming pilgrimage, I should be prepared to sleep rough, and with the nights still pretty cold, I need something. However, I don’t want to drop 100-200 bucks on a (camping) air mattress or sleeping bag and be stuck hauling it around for the rest of my trip.
I headed up the hill to the castle, passing another Shinto shrine. Matsuyama has one of the best castles in Japan. It was simply amazing. The weather was also perfect, and from the main keep, you could see all the way across the Inland Sea to Honshu. The castle grounds were extensive with multiple sets of walls all in good shape and the inner portion was more like a tour of the workings of a castle than the typical dry museum collection.
On the way down the other side of the hill, I popped into a garden. I passed by the city art museum to return to the main downtown and finish my shopping. I did a loop of another department store before going underground to buy the henro gear. I went back to the guesthouse to drop it off before running over to the grocery store to get some sushi for dinner.
After dinner, I went over to a onsen recommended strongly by the guesthouse owner, a 2 minute walk away. It was amazing. I’ve been to tons of saunas, but this one had things I’ve never seen before. There was a scented pool where the water was a bright lime green. There was a carbolic acid pool in case you ever wanted to bathe in warm soda water. Strangest of all was a set of “lightning pools” recessed into one pool. Given that there were two other sets of jets, I was expecting something like that, but I got electrocuted. Seriously. When your body goes between the set of diodes, an electrical current passes through the water and you. Insane.
I swung by 7-11 on the way back to grab a late night snack and do my last calorie loading before the long march.
| Movie | 1400 |
| Coffee Set Meal | 594 |
| Castle Ticket | 510 |
| Garden Ticket | 200 |
| Buddhist gear | 6372 |
| Protein bars | 469 |
| Onsen ticket (discounted) | 500 |
| Groceries | 1092 |
| Ice cream and potato chips | 300 |
| Total: | 11397 JPY (729.4 RMB) (USD 108.4) |
Running Total: 26841.1 RMB (USD 3988.45)
Daily Average: 301.6 RMB (USD 44.8)