Okunoshima and Onomichi

Our final bit of moving around before we settled in Hiroshima for four weeks was to travel from Imabari, via Okunoshima and stay a night in Onomichi. This would take us from Shikoku back to the mainland of Japan (Honshu). Even though Shikoku is a seperate island, it's actually connected to Honshu a several points with enormous bridges. From Imabari, the Shimanami Kaido is a bridge/road that passes over six small islands in the Seto Inland Sea and finishes in Onomichi. 

I've added it as a little bridge icon on the map above, but it's a bit hard to appreciate it from that. None of the smaller islands that it crosses over are shown at all. It's a popular cycling route and I can see why. The view as you drive over the bridges is stunning. 

A better shot of the islands and the
roads and bridges connecting them 
from here.

We will get to that in a bit, but first, it's always best to drive with four working wheels on your car. 

We had the unhappy discovery as we packed up to leave Imabari that morning that the front passenger wheel was flat. We didn't noticed it until Steve had just driven to the end of our very narrow street; he then had the unpleasant task of trying to reverse back into an open spot so we could assess the situation. We figured replacing it would be straightforward enough, but then unpacked the boot to find there was no spare. 

One of the neighbours came out of the house immediately offered to help by visiting the car shop across the road to raise assistance for us. It was 8:30 on a Saturday morning though, so they were understandably, not open yet. She assured me that someone would come and offered local phone numbers of places I could call. Or, I would have been able to call with a local phone. Not so much with my Australian mobile. Even with roaming, calls have not yet worked once in our five months here. 

The friendly neighbourhood car guy came around and immediately began assisting us by plugging in the tyre re-pump kit that did come with the car, and then running back to his work to get their kit when we realised ours didn't have the hose to actually connect it to the tyre. The wheel pumped up quickly enough, and he stayed with us and througherly checked the wheel for where it was punctured. We found nothing. Such a mystery!

After I told him where we were headed (lots of driving), he advised going to a servo to check the pressure and if we needed to, to get a new wheel there. We were pretty set on getting the new wheel, since we didn't want to risk this one deflating again, even if it seemed to be working fine now. The recommended servo was a 15 min drive, but the helpful car guy was confident we would make it no problems. 

Off we went, stopped at the servo and got a new wheel for the car with no troubles. Then our journey continued, over the bridges and islands. 

Couldn't get many good photos, but the view was stunning. We were pretty lucky that we didn't have any actual plans for the day that relied on a tight schedule, because the whole flat tyre affair set us back about an hour. We made a brief stop at a park for a snack and a walk around. 

The park was a rose garden, so the gift shop was selling rose ice cream, which we, of course, sampled. The girls thought this was better than the olive and soy sauce ice creams that we'd had on Shodoshima. Maybe. When then drove to a ferry terminal, parked the car and caught a ferry across to visit Okunoshima. 

This tiny island has a large population of wild rabbits that you can see hopping around and feed. It was also where Japan experimented with developing poisonous gas for warfare, but eventually concluded that it was inhumane and ceased production. There are a few spots on the island of the original army/research base that serve as museums for people to visit. Steve went into the main one while the girls and I enjoyed the bunnies. 

So cute! We had some convenience store onigiri that we grabbed for lunch (there was really not much else on the island, so I was glad we picked that up before catching the ferry) and then wandered down to the beach. In the rush of the morning with the car drama, I'd clean forgotten that packing swimmers could be an option, so it was a bit disappointing that we'd left them in the car when the day was so hot and the water was so beautiful and cool. 

The girls and I went in up to our knees and it was difficult to tear ourselves away, even from that small relief. We had to catch the ferry back and then continue driving over the bridges and islands to Onomichi. Onomichi is a small port city which is very cute. We stayed the night and then used the morning to explore around. 

The first thing the girls and I did was a maneki neko (beckoning cat) painting workshop. It was a cute little thing for the morning (Steve wandered around town), if a bit expensive. 

I am glad we did it though, because we have some very cute maneki neko to take home with us. Can you tell who did which cat? 

After this, we wandered the Main Street and took the cable car to the top of the mountain for some fun views. The heat had really kicked in though, so we ate our onigiri lunch that I'd packed and then trekked down the mountain. 

Saw these lovely furin on the way down. 

And went via Cat Alley where all the cracks in the pavement and random stones on the path were painted like cats. Fun!

Then we had about an hour and a half of driving to take our trusty hire car back to Okayama where we picked it up all those weeks ago. In the car for the last two weeks of driving, we'd been listening to an audio book, which we usually do on family travel adventures. This time was Trouble Twisters by Garth Nix and Sean Williams. Rachel had listened to it before, since she enjoyed Garth Nix's Mister Monday series, but it was new for the rest of us. It's definitely written for a younger audience (think 8-10, rather than 10 - 14), but was enjoyable none the less. 

Dropping the car back was pretty funny because we were reimbursed for the new tyre that we'd bought. Typically Japan, they reimbursed us in cash. None of us were excited about carrying our heavy suitcases to the station, but we were also relieved that this was one of the last times we'd have to do this.

Next up: Hiroshima!

Imabari

The adventure in Shikoku continues! This time we left the mountains of Kajigamori with Imabari our destination. 

Japan has this thing where cities often have the same name as the prefectures (think states in Australia) that they are in. For example, Hiroshima City is in Hiroshima Prefecture. Imabari wasn't exactly like this, but Imabari City is very different to the general area of Imabari. We had booked an AirBnb that was advertised as "in Imabari" and maybe it's on me for not doing more research, but we were not really in Imabari at all. Well, Imabari City at least. 

On the map above, I put the star in the general location of where we stayed. Imabari City is actually on the other side of that tip of the island. It wasn't a big deal, but where we ended up was a pretty tiny village. Before we get to the tiny village though, we had a full day of driving first. 

We left Kajigamori and stopped in at the waterfalls we tried to walk to from the top of the mountain the day before. The path from the carpark at the bottom was much more manageable and we had waterfall success. 

We trucked on with our day, aiming for a swimming spot at a river running through another gorge. Though difficult to find a park and then a place to get down to the water, we ended up at a little spot just off the main road. The water was so clear and cool it was perfect to be in. The girls and I climbed down the weir to swim around the bottom section in the photo below. Steve enjoyed being in up to his knees before retreating to the shade once more. 

I could have swum there for hours, but we got hungry, so went to a little cafe for lunch and continued our journey. 

We honestly could not get over just how beautiful Shikoku was. Everywhere we drove was amazing view, mountains, green fields, blue rivers. I can't imagine what it would be like to come back in winter when the mountains are covered in snow! I did navigate us to a second waterfall for another break in our driving, but it was almost as heavily touristed as the vine bridge was back in the Iya valley. There were five carparks, but each only had space for six cars, and were already full. 

As we were inching our way up the congested mountain road with everyone else wanting to see this waterfall, it started raining. We were lucky enough to find a park, so we got out and put on raincoats, hoping for the best. It was not to be. The rain was coming down so hard we were soaked in minutes, so after using the facilities and Steve getting a quick coffee from the vending machine on the side of the road, we went back to the car to continue our journey. 

Navigating the mountain road in the heavy rain was tough, but it didn't last; just on the other side of the mountains was clear blue sky and beautiful day. We got into our Imabari house in the evening after a grocery shop. This place had a desk and chair for Steve to work at, so we were there for a whole week. It was a pretty good place, though the carpark was down the street and the street itself was only 2m across. Driving through that was stress central for Steve!

The next day (Sunday) we went over to Matsuyama, which is the capital city in the prefecture. We did the usual touristy things, trecking up the hill to the castle and eating shaved ice at the top to cool off. 

Matsuyama is a port city, and again, the views were amazing. Steve and I just kept enjoying them, but the girls were so over it. Inconceivable! 

I love the way these trees are supported. We wandered down the Main Street and had an unconventional lunch of pancakes at a restaurant called the Flying Scotsman. I may have picked up a few more kimono things from a second hand store while my loving family waited patiently. Then back to Imabari to get ready for the week. 

For all that where we stayed in Imabari was a tiny strip of a village, it was also a short ten min walk to some pretty perfect beach. Again, can't get over how picturesque it was there. 

The whole "town" was full of traditional Japanese houses with their beautiful tiled roofs and garden walls. Almost everyone we saw was over 60years old, and it was the quietest place we stayed. Possibly even rivalling our two nights in the mountains. We could see so much evidence of the aging population and people leaving the small towns for big cities everywhere. 

Across from our house were two others that were obviously abandoned. One you could see broken windows and rooms full of leftover possessions, and the other had a partially collapsed roof with a tree growing out of it. Sadly in these old areas there is not much that can be done, because the streets are to narrow to get in any kind of demolition or renovation equipment. 

Since Steve had a desk to work at and we were here for a week, it was time for our holidays to start wrapping up and face some reality. This meant it was time for me to home school the girls. 

We had done some Australian school work back in Tokyo, when their teachers sent assignments through. Now I sat down with them every day and we worked through English, Maths, Science, Digital Technology, and Humanities as well as a hefty amount of Japanese. For the most part home schooling these girls was easy, because I know mostly what I'm doing and because they want to learn. Not to say every moment was rainbows and sunshine, but we got the job done. 

Investigating what happens when light passes through glass

I broke things up with outings, including a walk to our local park, which was probably the biggest thing in town. Set on the side of a small mountain, this park had lots of winding paths, a clock tower look out, statues of the zodiac animals, the biggest play equipment we've seen in Japan and some stunning views. Pretty lucky for us to be right near it, so I guess I don't mind that we weren't in Imabari City after all. 

Along with the big play equipment was an enormous roller slide. Japanese parks often have these in varying lengths, but this was the longest we'd seen. It took a full min and a half to slide from top to bottom, had tunnels, turns and twists galore. 

Entry to the roller slide

I really enjoyed being at the park with the girls, and it took me back to all the park trips I'd done with the kids when I ran a family day care back in the day. This was exactly the kind of place I would have taken the kids to if I were running a family day care here in Japan. 

So lucky to have been able to hang out with my girls like this. We watched a few eagle/raptor type birds just hovering in the air over the park for ages. Shikoku was the place we saw the most of these, all over the mountains from Shodoshima through to Imabari. Possibly the coolest wild animal sighting that we had. 

Our week here was pretty mundane as far as tourist travel goes. Steve was working, the girls and I were homeschooling and I was starting to get my head back into work mode as I addressed a bunch of email and to do things that I needed to catch up on. We didn't go out much (there was really nothing much to do in the village except maybe the beach and the park) but just got on with life. 

Morning walk around the rice fields

The last day we were there (Friday), we drove out to this lookout over the water. Down the hill was a beach which we went to. Rachel promptly got into the water and started catching things. It was beautiful and a great way to end our Shikoku stay. 

That night we went out for dinner at Otousan's (Dad's) which was a small shop with an old Japanese guy making the meals on his own. He looked a little worried when we came in, but relaxed when I read the (entirely Japanese) menu to the girls and Steve. The food was delicious and huge and the owner thanked all of us for studying Japanese so hard. 

Now, onward to the end!

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.