23 September, 2010: Dogo Onsen
Got bored when I was at the in-laws and decided to bike up to Dogo Onsen and see if the area had changed in the last couple years – it hasn’t.
The area between the Dogo train station and onsen consists of a quaint little outdoor shopping arcade full of locally produced goods and foods – to include mikan juice that is produced from locally grown mikans. While the Dogo buildings haven’t changed, there seemed to be a plethora of bottled Mikan juice that I had never seen before.
The most popular juice is made by the POM juice company and, when I lived there in the late ’90s, POM was pretty much the only juice that I recall seeing, but, where before I recall seeing two or three different types, now there were 6 or 7 different types along with all these small mom and pop companies making “fresh” or “straight 100%” juice.
Well… I was thirsty and I do love mikan juice, so I decided to try as many as I could. I had POM regular, POM Straight, POM Beta, POM with Pulp, and 5 bottles of juice from the small companies (which, while they all tasted pretty much the same, tasted the freshest and best). I didn’t get sick, but I definitely don’t want any mikan juice for a long time…
After drinking my fill of juice, I walked up the rest of the arcade to the onsen to take some pictures and go for a bath, but, while it was a good night to take pictures, I should have known that on a warm summer evening the baths would be packed… Maybe next time I go back in May.
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19 September, 2010: Matsuyama Castle
From 1998-2001, I lived on the smallest of the four main islands of Japan, Shikoku, in the city of Matsuyama.
Matsuyama is the capital city of Ehime prefecture and has a population of ~500,000 people, but is considered, by most, to be very rural. Very few Japanese go to Shikoku, but of those that do, a good majority of them do end up spending a day or two here visiting temples, taking a bath at Dogo Onsen, eating mikans, viewing/buying Tobe pottery, and visiting the castle that is in the middle of the city on a hill.
I consider Matsuyama to be my “Japan home” and think that, of all the Japanese castles I have seen thus far, Matsuyama has one of the best, if not the best, castle in Japan (most say Himeji is the best).
This castle was originally built in 1603 and has undergone several transformations since then, but during the Meji Restoration, when many other castles met their demise, it went virtually unscathed. Likewise, during World War II, parts of it were destroyed by bombing from American forces, but, when compared with other castles in Japan, the majority of it survived. Considering the fact that it is in the middle of a large city, on top of a hill, it is miraculous that the entire castle was not lost.
The bare wooden exterior gives the whole castle a more historic feel and, though it is impossible to say that the buildings are “original”, a good portion of them are extant and, since 1966, the city of Matsuyama has been working to properly restore the castle the grounds surrounding it.
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17 September, 2010: Kobo Daishi Statue at Ishite-ji
When we were in Matsuyama, Luna wanted to go to the mountains and look for Tottoro before we left for home.
To facilitate this effort, on one of our final days we biked up to Ishite-zi in order to climb the mountain (hill?) behind the temple and see if Totorro was around anywhere. To get up to the top, you have to walk through an old graveyard and then up through one of several winding paths that are lined with small side paths containing jizo statues, piles of stones, small shrines, shide, and the occasional curiosity, such as a tiny old stone table and chairs set up on the hillside where it has sunk into the earth (Luna was sure it was for Tottoro’s friends to use).
I had climbed this a couple of times when I lived in Matsuyama, but that was 10 years ago and the trail is much narrower and steeper than I remember from the last time I climbed up here. While there are signs guiding pilgrims who happen to wander up these paths up to the top, it seems that most stick to the main temples at Ishite-ji as I have yet to meet another living soul on my trips up to the top or down to the bottom.
While we never did find Tottoro, we did find some piles of acorns left by him (many of which ended up being placed in my pockets to show Baba, Jiji, and my wife), and Luna was able to see the Giant Kobo Daishi statue up close for the first time.
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7 September, 2010: Tunnels at Ishite-Ji Temple
Have been visiting the in-laws in Matsuyama (Ehime Prefecture) for the past few days and today Luna wanted to go for a ride on the bicycle.
We hopped on the bike in the early afternoon and rode into town and, as it was lunch time, we decided to get her new favorite food (Indian Curry) and stopped into Everest. Everest is a “newer” Indian restaurant in the outdoor Okaido shopping arcade that runs through the middle of the city. The curry was good, but not as good as Ladki’s over by Shieki train station. During lunch, Luna may have been slightly influenced by all the pictures of the Himalayas in the restaurant as she mentioned that she wanted to go into the mountains after lunch….
So after we had our fill of nan and curry, we got back on the bike and rode up to Ishite-ji to walk around and I asked her if she wanted to go into the tunnels under the mountain. She hesitantly agreed, but made me promise not to yell in the tunnels. Apparently that bothers her. Apparently I do this enough to warrant an immediate comment any time the subject of “tunnels” come up.
I agreed to refrain from screaming and we made our way into the tunnels that are located behind the temples…
Ishite-ji is one of the strangest temples I have ever been to as there are tunnels carved through the mountain behind the temple that go to a even weirder part of the temple that most people never explore (will post photos of that at a later date). The tunnels are dark, damp, and filled with artifacts, paintings, statues, a lot of stone Jizo, and, at one time, had flashing lights that were set on motion detectors. Not sure if this is true, but I have been told that they caused at least one person to have a seizure and have since been turned off. True or not, they weren’t on, but were still visible hanging from the ceiling in several areas.
At first Luna was scared, but we went and sat in a corner listening to the mountain noises for a good 15-20 minutes. As we sat there we could hear he sound of cars traveling over our heads, water dripping, an occasional pilgrim hitting a large gong outside the temple, and the sounds that we couldn’t associate with anything but the “voice of the mountain”. As we sat there, she took notice of all the Jizo lining the middle of the tunnel and went to figure out if they were boy jizo or girl jizo. As I walked along taking pictures, she would examine each one and put their hats back on if they had fallen off (it turns out those with hats are girls and those without are boys). Though she looks scared in some photos, she really wasn’t – just a bit tired.
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14 August, 2010: Otete & Anyo Stamps
Right before Kohaku was born, I saw a link to a company that makes Japanese style stamps from a scan of your baby’s hand or foot.
I decided to buy one hand stamp and one foot stamp, placed my order, and quickly received a response from the company (in English). They were great to work with and the stamps arrived earlier than expected (around 10 days). The stamps, when finished, are the exact size of your baby’s hand/foot, are beautifully crafted, engraved with your baby’s name/birth date, and come in a paulownia wood box.
They do deliver to other countries, can work with customers in English, and their site can be found is at:
www.oteteanyo.com/index_en.html
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