Kajigamori

Kajigamori is not a place that will easily show up on a map of Shikoku. It's very much up in the mountains, out of the way. I was trying to find somewhere for us to stop for a night or two as we travelled east to west across Shikoku that broke up our journey nicely. It was much harder than it sounded. We revised these travel plans again and again trying to figure out the best way to do it, and what we ended up with definitely had it's flaws. It was an ongoing battle of how much can we do without pushing ourselves too hard. I tried to take advice from others and the internet, but a lot of it you never know just how it's going to turn out. 

We left Takamatsu with a pretty full day of driving ahead. If we drove straight to the mountains, it was going to take between two and a half and three hours. So we picked some spots along the route to stop at and break up the journey. We knew Rachel was not great with long distance car trips, even with motion sickness tablets ready, and the driving in Japan wasn't a walk in the park for Steve either. 

The day turned out to be actually great. Our first stop was a Pokemon themed park featuring Slowpoke, which is the Pokemon mascot for Takamatsu. It was pretty funny to be at the park with all the little kids, but it was obvious too that people were coming for the photos and then leaving. 

We continued on into the mountains where we stopped at a few different lookouts. The day was so clear and the green mountains with the ice blue rivers in the gorges was stunning. Completely different from the endless city, concrete jungle that is Tokyo. I had made onigiri for our lunch so we didn't have to stress out about food. 

The busiest place we stopped at was the Ira Valley, where there is a big rope bridge across the gorge. It was so popular with the tourists it had a huge carpark and line to cross over too. We didn't end up going over the bridge, since we'd done one at Shikoku Village. 

We did go down to the water to cool off and have a splash. There were a stack of people there "swimming" around. Most of the Japanese people had inflatable rings to float on and their kids had all sorts of safety vests even though the water was not particularly deep. Obviously being in a gorge is different from at the beach, but everyone also had reef shoes on, or just wore their sandals into the water. We were the odd tourists out going in barefoot. 

Also the odd tourists out just being foreign looking. Everyone else was a Japanese tourist. The waterfall there was also lovely and we had a nice afternoon snack - Rachel got kakigoori, Sophie and Steve had ice cream, I had some grilled soy sauce mochi. Delicious!

Then we drove on again to Kajigamori. Google maps said it was about an hour from where we were, which was fine, but about ten minutes into the drive, we turned onto a very different kind of road. It wasn't unsealed, but it was very much one lane, no gutters, lots of pot holes and rocks across the road. It was super wind-y, most of the time with curve-y mirrors to help you see the oncoming traffic. We were only nine kms away, but it did take us the full 45/50 minutes to drive it. Steve was exhausted at the end and I don't blame him. 

The view when we fell out of the car was magical, but it had been an effort to get there for sure. We checked into our accomodation, which was a little room with shared bathrooms attached to an observatory.  We had some very delicious sukiyaki for dinner that night. 

And we got to go see the big telescope and look at the stars. Just being on the mountain and away from all the city lights ment we saw so many stars, but the telescope was a plus as well. I was a little daunted when I realised they would explain all of it in Japanese (again, we were the only foreign tourists, everyone else was Japanese). I did not know how I would go trying to translate for Steve and the girls given my lack of star knowledge in English let alone Japanese!

I was surprised with how much I could understand and translate for them, though my appreciation for the hard job it is to listen and translate simultaneously has increased tenfold from the experience. After looking through the telescope, we all went out and looked at the stars in the carpark. It was beautiful and actually cool for a change! Honestly, the summer weather had be just long hot days with no nighttime relief, so for it to get below 20 was a shock. 

The next day we thought we'd try doing one of the walks around the top of the mountain, down to a waterfall and back. Before breakfast Rachel and I went for a wander around but it was tricky to find the trail. It looked like it was going to be another over grown trail situation like I had had on Shodoshima. 

We did attempt the trail together, but it got a bit scrambl-y and hard to see where to go next. Even though the map said it was an average trail, it definitely required more experience and gear than we had. We were again, particularly worried about Steve and his hand, since he wouldn't be able to use it to balance scrambling down or to get back up again. 

So instead, we went back, jumped in the car and drove to the top of the mountain. The view was pretty average from there, though there were Pokemon to catch. We could see our observatory too. 

It was pretty disappointing to be on such a beautiful mountain, surrounded by nature but kind of unable to get into it. Steve was reticent to do any more driving than we needed to on the tricky mountain road, which was completely understandable. 

We ended up sending the girls back to the room and we did a 15min walk through the foliage to "Lovers Walk". It was really only manageable because we both had long pants on. Can you even see the path in the photo below? It's there.... somewhere! 

At some parts going through it the greenery around us was up to our waist. I can't believe it's actually considered a trail and on a map. The view at the lookout was stunning though, so that was nice. 

I guess it turns out, we should have only had one night at this place, and gone on the next day. Wasn't much we could do about it at the time though. I hope I'm not giving everyone the impression that we were sad for lots of our travel time, but I do want to genuinely share that it wasn't all smooth sailing. I think too we/I felt the pressure of everyone telling us to "make the most of it" and actually wanting to do that, but sometimes making the most of it is realising you are not equipped for a hike down the mountain and you just need to retreat to your room and teach your daughters Big Bertha for the afternoon. 

So that's what we did. Along with lots of reflecting about how things were different to what we expected and what we could do differently next time. I wonder if we've learnt... maybe. This traveling thing is hard work! 

The mountain lodge had a guitar in the common space in the foyer, so the girls and I took it outside that evening before dinner to have a sing on the mountain top. The girls were a little uncharacteristically enthusiastic about singing in public (even though there was barely anyone around), but they were delighted at our karaoke session. 

That was a beautiful experience as the sun went down over the mountains around us. We lay on the yoga mats in the carpark again that night and appreciated the starry sky and I saw my first shooting star. Net positive from our stay in the mountains, and onto a new place the next day. 

Takamatsu

Takamatsu was our next stop after Shodoshima. This is a big port city on the north east of Shikoku. I had booked us four nights here, thinking it would be a good base for day trips. Hindsight is 20/20 and we didn't need that long here and the day trips through the wind-y mountains were not worth it for one day. Alas! 

Colourful man-hole cover in Takamatsu

I think after the slower pace in Shodoshima, we were also ready for a bit more get up and go. Maybe I didn't research enough too. On top of that, after the super comfortable stay in our Shodoshima house, the AirBnB in Takamatsu was a little disappointing, which probably coloured our view of things too. We still "made the most of it". 

Anyway, we went to the top of Mt Yashima for some views and nature, which was fun. There was a temple there, which we walked around, and then a random art gallery too. The views were nice, though the day was a bit rainy. The girls saw lots of dangomushi, bugs that curl up into balls when they are scared, and the cicada were out in full force. So loud! 

Then we went down to Shikoku Village, which is an open air museum of old Japanese houses. It had a very cool vine bridge to walk over, which was stressful for the girls, but cool to do. 

The village had lots of displays of traditional style Japanese houses which were fascinating to see and was surrounded by beautiful forests at the base of the mountain. 

It also included another random art gallery and this interesting step/waterfall installation in one section. You could walk all the way through it, and the water was fascinating to see flowing over the different sections. So noisy though! 

This second water feature was much more traditional style and peacefully surrounded by nature. 

After that, we took a drive out to see the Naruto Whirlpools off the coast of Tokushima Prefecture. These are naturally occurring whirlpools that happen because the ocean on either side of the coast are flowing in opposite directions and crashing on rocks and what not. We walked out on that huge bridge. The top is for cars, and underneath is an enclosed walkway for spectators. 

The bridge was open at the top with huge glass windows so you could look out. It was a bit tricky to see things as you got further along because the steel of the actual bridge could get in the way. Being able to see straight down to the water below was pretty incredible. We watched the waves crash and turn and make whirlpools all over the place. 

You could also be out on the water viewing the whirlpools from a boat, which we could see on the water as well. I don't know if the view would be better though, that close up. It was inconceivable to me, just how the boat drivers managed to get so close and then pull away before disaster. Especially when we could see the boat tilting when all the passengers crowded over to one side to see the whirlpools. The day had turned rainy and the wind out on the peninsular was so strong, so we were happy to jump back into the car and drive home again. 

The next day we went to visit the gardens at Takamatsu, the Ritsurin Gardens. Compared with Okayama, these were beautiful! I don't know if it was just because there was more water features, or different nature to view, but we loved these gardens. 

When we got there, Rachel picked up a stamp collection sheet at the front desk. Just like at Okayama castle, she had to wander around to different locations getting the stamps. I think that would be have been enough for her, but you could also hand it in at the end for a prize. As soon as she picked it up, Rachel studied the map and was ready to go. 

She and Sophie ended up planning our route and leading us around the gardens. Maybe we liked it more because the girls were actually on board with being there, while in Okayama, they were ready to leave from the moment we entered. I don't know, but we were having so much fun we let them get some fish food for the koi too. 

What was less fun was when on the way to our final stamp collection point, the girls got a little too far ahead and we lost them around a bend. Not 100% sure which way they had gone, Steve and I split up to look for them. We were in no way worried about finding them, or their general safety, but it was a hot day, and I didn't want to end our lovely morning with a stressful search and rescue. 

So I just asked everyone I saw if they had seen the girls and eventually we tracked them down. They said that someone at a shop had talked to them in Japanese but they didn't quite understand, but the tourist I had asked from Hong Kong had stopped them and told them which way we had gone. We did spend time going over the "What to do when lost" plans and walked back to the shops I had stopped in at to say thanks and that we found them. 

We went down to the main shopping street and enjoyed some delicious udon for lunch. This is what Takamatsu is famous for and it was indeed amazing. Steve then went off to the doctors to get what we hoped was a final x-ray on his hand. The girls and I wandered around and over to a local park where there were summer festival stalls set up. 

The rest of that day and the next were very meh to be honest. We had pretty much exhausted the things we wanted to do in Takamatsu itself, the heat was not fun and the news of Steve's hand not being healed just made us all want to cry. Well, mostly me. We decided to take it easy, played some DnD with the girls and walked out to see the fireworks over the water for our final night. 

I was really glad we got to see another fireworks festival. I had two organised in Tokyo, but Steve came back from Fuji-san on the day of the first one, so we didn't go then, and the second one was the day Rachel came home from school camp, so she was wrecked. We did end up going, but between the heat, crowds and exhausted Rachel, we didn't stay long. In Takamatsu, our AirBnb was right near the water, so we just had a short walk to the beach, got a great spot to view the fireworks and had a fantastic time. It was a really nice way to end what had been a bit of an up and down four days. 

Shodoshima

Hope you are all enjoying following along the travel adventure part of our six month stay in Japan. After leaving Tokyo where we stayed for four months, we went to Nagoya and then Okayama. Each of those places was a three night stop, but our next was four nights. Our destination was Shodoshima, which is an island off the coast of Shikoku. 

Shikoku is the smallest of Japan's four main islands. It's a bit hard to describe the islands, because Shodoshima is so small it doesn't show up on a map of Japan, but when it comes to the islands off the coast of Takamatsu it's one of the bigger ones. Even in the map above, there are so so many tiny islands that are not there! We were looking forward to it so much because we'd booked a place right near the sea and after the somewhat uncomfortable experience in the smokey hotel in Okayama, we were ready for some fresh sea air. 

Shodoshima did not disappoint. 

We had to get their via a ferry, honestly with no real idea about how to do that with a car, but we loaded up as quick as we could out of Okayama and did our best to make the 10:10 ferry. If we missed it, we missed it. We pulled into the parking lot at exactly 10:10 as the ferry crew were putting the chain across to wrap up boarding. Seeing us though, they frantically waved us over and asked if we wanted to ride. I was so happy for helpful Japanese people right then, since the next ferry wasn't until 11:20. 

I leapt out of the car to sort out tickets and Steve drove the car on. The staff in the ticket booth saw us coming and did all the button pushing for me, which made the ticket purchase so quick. When we had been driving in, we had honestly resigned ourselves to having to do the hour wait, but suddenly, everything was sorted and we were on our way! 

Being our first time riding a ferry with a car, we weren't sure what was ok to do, so we stayed in the car for a bit listening to an audio book and snacking before we got out to stretch our legs and look around. So glad we did, because the view of the ocean and islands was pretty magical. 

The ferry ride was about an hour and a half, so we were soon off the boat and onto the island. Given that we had some time to kill before we could check into our place, our first stop was a lookout that was nearby to the ferry terminal. I think Steve and the girls would have been happy with a different lookout, but I think it was worth the stress. The road up was a very windy, one lane with no gutter edges to offer support. Steve was driving with one hand, since he was still sporting his broken hand bandage at this stage too. 

When we got to the parking area, I asked the lady at the tiny refreshment stand which way to go. She very kindly told me straight up, 380 stairs and then a scramble over the rocks to get to the top. Apparently it was only a ten or fifteen min walk. It was 11:30 by this stage, so pretty peak heat, but I was confident we could manage it. 

The trip up was painful but short and the views! Oh my goodness. The islands and the ocean were just stunning. So different from the Japan we had experienced in all the big cities so far. Tokyo, Nagoya and Okayama - nothing was like this. Despite the heat, the beauty was undeniable. We tracked back down the mountain and had a cool drink from the refreshment stand. Steve tried his best to cool his bandaged hand off, but it was pretty uncomfortable for him. 

Then we went off to find some lunch. Ended up at a little place with gyoza and somen noodles. We ordered three types of gyoza: seafood, olive oil and wild boar. Pretty delicious. We had noticed all the olive trees on the island as we had been driving through. It was a bit nuts to see them in Japan; something so iconically Mediterranean. 

Then we found a beach for a swim. This was the "Olive Beach". I can't say much for the actual beach sand, Australia is better there, but the ocean was so cool and just amazing to be in. Again, we all felt sorry for Steve who only went in up to his knees before retreating into the shade. The girls and I got to experience the bliss of the cool water on the hot day. 

Such perfection. We were pretty worried about sunburn, especially for our pale daughters, so we only stayed an hour or so before getting out of the water. 

We went to a grocery store for supplies and then on to our place for the next four days. This house ended up being the biggest one that we would stay in for Japan. It was a beautiful old Japanese house that had been renovated. The kitchen sink stood at a modern height and we had a table and chairs to eat at. There was also a small couch in the living room as well as huge tatami rooms to sleep in. I loved that it came with a backyard and the hosts had a composting system for us to use too. 

The owners ran a small coffee shop on the street in front of the house and lived close by. We saw them during our stay and even met the owners parents when they were around in the evenings. The whole community vibe of Shodoshima was beautiful. Everyone greeted us as we walked along the water front, which was so different to the cities where there is much more "avoid eye contact" going on. 

We were trying to take it a bit easy here, so we didn't do a lot some days. The first day was a bit rainy anyway, but we went out to an "Angel Walk" in the afternoon. 

This is when the tide goes down and you are able to walk the sandbar connecting the main island to other smaller islands. It was pretty fun to do this walk in the cooler evening. Steve skimmed rocks on the water, and Rachel enjoyed looking at all the sea creatures. Lots of crabs, snails and fish in the water. We also saw a stack of jelly fish (just like in Ponyo!) 

The water was again beautiful to be in. 

After this we had some more grocery shopping to do. As we drove over this bridge to get to the shops, I noticed the sign said "World's Narrowest Strait". Steve and Rachel went back to get a photo. There were a number of places where if the tide was high, the water would cut off one side from another, so Shodoshima seems to be a few islands that are connected by bridges more than just one island. 

The days are a bit of a blur, since we enjoyed a few home days, or broke up days with mornings at home and arvo out, or vice versa. We explored the Olive centre of Shodoshima more and had this olive flavoured soft serve. Strangely good!

And we took a cable car to the top of one of the mountain ranges for this view. A bit cloudier than when we first arrived, but still beautiful. It was amazing to see beach and ocean and then huge mountains. I wish we had done more walks in the mountains, but the days were still pretty hot and Steve couldn't do anything that might result in him falling and needing to save himself with a broken hand. Better to be safe. 

At the top of the mountains we had maple flavoured ice cream. This was Rachel's favourite. Possibly Sophie's too. 

I went for a mountain walk near where we lived one evening, slightly traumatised by a less than well maintained trail that had me turning around because it was so over grown it was un-walk-able, and then the subsequent trails being inaccurately represented on both Google Maps and Pokemon Go. I did consider, more than once, that I might be the next Australian to make the news because I've gotten lost and needed a chopper rescue, or worse, fallen right off the mountain and died. I'm not sure the view was worth it that day, but I did feel like I had achieved something by putting my joggers on and giving it a go. 

The girls recorded their Soran Bushi dance at the beach in front of our house one evening. I was so proud of them being brave enough to do it as locals were walking their dogs along the water front. The cafe that the owners of our AirBnB ran had kakigoori (shaved ice), which we enjoyed one afternoon. This was hands down the best we had in Japan. It was enormous and had real fruit on it, rather than just flavoured syrup. Amazing. 

There was a soy sauce factory museum on the other side of the island, so we went out for a walk through there too. It was super interesting to learn about the soy sauce making process (it takes over a year because of fermentation and what not) and also compare traditional to modern production. The girls were not impressed at us dragging them here, but Steve and I had a good time. Rachel joined me for the dress up photo shoot at the end where we pretended to be hard working soy sauce factory employees. 

Outside afterwards we were brave enough to try the soy sauce flavoured ice cream. Kind of caramel-y, like when people add miso to brownies. 

That evening was our last day, so we had an extended play in the water at the beach. Rachel caught all manner of animals, including this fish. Sophie sketched some landscapes of the mountains and ocean. 

I made dinner and brought it out for us to enjoy while the sun set. We could not have been more thankful for this time. 

After the girls were in bed, I was packing up things in the living room and noticed the bookshelf had some picture books of fish, so I pulled them off the shelf to see if I could find out what kind of fish Rachel had caught earlier that day. Turns out she caught a poisonous puffer fish. Ops! Is it bad parenting that I didn't consider the wildlife could be poisonous or that I encouraged her to try to catch the fish in the first place? Both probably. 

Anyway, I had a mild panic and Steve asked Gemini how worried we should be. Gemini told us to seek immediate medical attention, but calmed down slightly when we told it that the fish was not ingested. It's a funny story now, but I did check on Rachel early the next morning to make sure she didn't die in her sleep from my neglect. 

Whew. We left Shodoshima with the same amount of daughters that we arrived with. I can 100% see us returning to Shodoshima one day. It was such a beautiful little getaway place and I hope other people can enjoy it as much as we did. 

Tsukuba-san

One of the tricky things for us to juggle at the moment is the fact that Steve, working for his Australian company, has the Australian public holidays, while the girls, in their Japanese public school, have the Japanese public holidays. As one might suspect, these do not often align. We are trying to make the most of our time here though, so with the Easter long weekend on the horizon, we booked two nights away at Mt Tsukuba. 

I had been to Tsukuba-san (as it's referred to in Japanese), before with my Japanese homestay family over twenty years ago. They had taken me because it's famous for frogs, which I love. Steve was wanting to get some actual mountain climbing practice in (not just stairs training) and Tsukuba-san looked like it would provide some ideal conditions for the mountain climbing (if not the freezing cold altitude of Fuji-san). Since the girls were at school on Friday, Steve took the train early in the morning and spent five hours climbing a mountain. The girls and I took the much later (and more crowded) train after school to join him. 

It was a cool and cloudy day, so even though not the best for the views, pretty tolerable for mountain climbing. Steve smashed out his climb and took the cable car back down the mountain even before school was over. 

We just stayed in the main town of Tsukuba, rather than at the mountain. I would have liked to go all the way up, but with the girls it was tricky. Still, there was plenty to do. Saturday we had breakfast out, stumbled upon some markets and then made our way to the Space Centre and Geological Museum. 

The Space Centre had an actual rocket, but was otherwise a little underwhelming. The Geological Museum was really interesting, with lots of displays and a huge interactive map of Japan that you could layer different information over. 

This was all the onsen (hot springs)

It's a little confronting to put things like "all the active volcanos" and "earthquake faults" on the map and see so many things light up. Steve mentioned that I seem a little concerned about all the ways we could die here. I guess coming from Australia, we are so used to all the warnings about animals that can kill you, while the natural disasters that could do the same are more few and far between. In Japan, there aren't that many animals that could take you out, but the list of natural disasters that would is pretty long. 

All the active volcanos

Also, Japan are way more prepared for all the emergencies; Rachel bought home a "what would we do in a flood" planning guide from school for example. People tend to store things like bottled water, incase of an emergency when the water is cut off, and have extra food in their floor cupboards. To be honest, even if I bought surplus food supplies, we'd have no way of cooking them if the power is out, so there isn't much point. Steve also pointed out that if we were at that moment in an emergency, we'd likely be at a friend's house or looking for ways to leave the country anyway. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. 

Anyway, back to the travel blog!

Getting out of the complex that the Geological Museum was in (which was the Science Research Centre for Tsukuba and actually had guards at the entrance) proved a little tricky, since we took a path to the rear only to find a locked gate stopping us from getting through. Luckily, someone who worked there road past us on a bike just as we turned back and we were able to get out after he swiped his card, saving us a long walk back in the heat. Did I mention it was 28 degrees? Such a warm day! 

We stopped at Tsukuba Brewery and Steve had a tasting paddle of three pretty good beers. I guess Steve would say they were all great, but I only really liked the first one. 

Then we bussed back to our hotel and I took the girls for another walk through the markets before we snacked at Mister Donuts. Lastly we walked through the central park to the Expo Centre (with yet another rocket). This place looked cool, but since it was already 4:15, we weren't sure if it would be worth it to try to smash through the exhibits in the 45mins before closing time, so we strolled back through the park to the fountain area outside the hotels that the girls were keen to play in. 

They hung out there on the rocks for ages doing who knows what. Scheming probably. Then Steve took them to get a cat shirt for Sophie and come back to the hotel for dinner. The girls were not feeling like going out for dinner, so we had strategically bought convenience store dinner for them (cup noodles and chicken pieces) and left them in the hotel while we went out. 

I tried my first ever eel, which was delicious, and Steve had tempura and soba. Back to the hotel for some time watching random Japanese game shows with the girls before bed. 

Sunday (Easter Sunday!) we had some chocolate eggs that I strategically packed all the way from Australia. Steve had said (back in February when I bought them) "We'll be able to find Easter eggs in Japan right?". Oh, so wrong Steve. I was glad I packed these precious Cadbury gems. They were well worth the luggage allowance that they took up. 

We didn't have much time on Sunday to explore Tsukuba more because the girls had their first meeting of Girl Scouts that afternoon, so we pretty much packed up and shipped out to be home in time for that. We saved our actual Easter celebrations for Monday, when we had a bit more time at home and were feeling much less travel worn. 

All in all, it was a good little get away.