Day 13: The Mountaintop Castle, Matsuyama-jo

We were really tired yesterday so we were able to go to bed early and get up at a good time today. It took us a while to eat breakfast and get out for the day because the couple who owns this guesthouse is super friendly and talkative. :) The man, Matt, is originally from Texas and told us about his time teaching English in Korea and Japan. His wife, Noriko, is native Japanese but has really good English. They are really knowledgeable about Shikoku, so we'll probably ask them for more advice tomorrow before we move to our next city.

Once we did make it outside, we headed for Matsuyama Castle. Matsuyama has a streetcar system that is really cool. It's basically like a loop line with several branches, and the streetcar itself is like an old, one-car trolley. It costs 150 yen (~$1.50) to ride each time, but it really is super convenient for getting around the city. Anyway, we hopped on the streetcar towards the castle. After getting off at our stop, we walked a few minutes before arriving at our next destination. The castle is on top of Mt. Katsuyama, smack dab in the middle of the city, and there are three ways to reach it: 1) hike; 2) chair lift; and 3) cablecar. We chose the last option. It was a small tram that only took a minute to reach the top, but the view of the city was incredible! Once at the top, we still had to walk further to the castle. We passed through several gates with huge stone walls before making it to the open flat area where the main castle tower sits. In that area (before reaching the castle buildings) is a viewpoint with benches in the shade. When I say viewpoint, I mean it- the view of Matsuyama city, the surrounding mountains, and the Seto Inland Sea was indescribable. It was almost a 360 degree view... so amazing. After we explored the castle, we sat on a bench there and ate ice cream. Mom said it was magic moment number two for her, three for me. ^_^

The inside of the main tower was nicer than I expected. I liked this castle better than Matsumoto's because it only has 3 stories instead of 6, and it's more flat so it feels more "castle-like," I guess. :P The top floor had another amazing view of the city. We could even see one of the islands in the Seto Inland Sea that we might visit tomorrow. The castle also had lots of good information in English about the founding of the buildings, plus explanations of how it was built (~1600), destroyed (~1750), and reconstructed (~1850).

We decided to go shopping once we made it all the way back down to the city. There is a long (covered, thankfully, as the sun was very bright) shopping arcade opposite the streetcar stop, so we explored there for a while. We even ate lunch at a beef bowl restaurant, which took some attempts at broken Japanese to figure out, but we made it. :D

Later in the afternoon we went back to our hotel, stopping to shop at the covered shopping arcade nearby. Today happened to be the start of an annual summer festival, so there was music playing and food stalls set up. I stopped by one of the stores and bought a pair of Japanese style sandals to go with my yukata. They're beautiful, but not really made for the shape of my foot. -_- We also bought a regional speciality called "taruto," which is basically like a small sponge cake shaped like a Japanese letter (no) and filled with red bean paste. Mmm. :)

This evening we visited the arcade area again to see what was going on at the festival. The actual event was taking place outside of the famous Dogo Onsen, which I finally got pictures of! We listened to some taiko (Japanese drumming) and Hawaiian singing. All in all, though, it wasn't as magical as the one we went to in Matsumoto. ;P

Phew, okay, that made up for yesterday! Tomorrow morning we plan to talk a scenic walk around this area of Matsuyama to a temple through a bamboo forest and cave, then in the afternoon ferry over to one of the small islands nearby. Should be a nice last day in Matsuyama, even with the heat.