Japan for the 10th time (Finally!) - October and November 2023 - Page 5

Early on it was cloudy and threatening rain. But it did not rain. I kind of wished it would later in the day because it was 25c again, it is almost winter! My eyes are hurting a bit from the bright sun of the last few days too.

I knew I was too early to see the sites of Dogo onsen, so first I headed to a nearby hill thinking I might climb it, on my rest day. There was a shrine in front of it.

There will be a lot of shrines today, so try and mentally prepare yourselves. Also I actually could not find a way to climb that hill, I am sure there is a way but it must be all the way around the back of it.

This was a bit strange. It is the propeller off a world war 2 plane, at the shrine, apparently donated by a fisherman. Thanks.

Approaching Dogo onsen, and things start to get touristy.

There are some historic onsen buildings underneath this shield that has presumably been erected to protect it from the risk of meteor impact, just one of many ways things get destroyed in Japan on a regular basis.

I stopped for a coffee, at Starbucks. This is the inside of the Starbucks which is on top of the old train station, which is now serviced by single carriage trams. Very nice spot for a coffee and a scone.

Here is the station, and an old train, just off to the right there was an Indian woman in full colourful sari filming a travel segment with a TV crew, pointing at a map and slow motion walking in her ridiculous bejewelled sandals. If I had of taken a photo, that might have helped with this description, but I was more interested in the train.

At the end of the street I found a staircase. I cannot resist a staircase.

View from top of staircase.

How about the clouds!

You could get inside this shrine and wander about. There were school kids doing some kind of amazing race thing using their ipads to take photos as proof of each place they had to go to.

Here is the next shrine over, less red more brown.

Now for a lap of Dogo park. I am just going to presume it is a dog park and that Dogo really is the Japanese word for dog. Also this park is a culturally significant park, a sign told me so.

At the top of Dogo park there is a viewing platform, so here is the view. There will be a lot of view today, too much view probably.

More view, in the direction of the nice clouds.

The Dogo area has a couple of covered shopping streets, mainly selling citrus related products.

The stores off to the sides were large, modern and open. No wig and clog shops.

This one sells mainly fancy fabrics.

OK, final Dogo onsen shot.

My next destination was the castle on the top of the hill. Here is the chairlift used by lazy people from all over the world. A lot of people fall off, so they have constructed a long trampoline under it.

Nice view into the sun from half way up the hill.

Behold, the castle. I just looked it up on Wikipedia, it is still an original castle, the wooden bits are the original wooden bits from 1603. Some parts were destroyed in world war 2 and re built, but the main part is original.

A bit more view.

And some more view with a seat that I sat on. It was hot.

More seats and more view, I did mention that there would be a lot of view.

Castle, ocean and island in the ocean.

Ancient castle, plastic samurai.

It costs about $5 to go in the castle, they take credit card. Since they do not require cash, I agreed and paid the price to go in.

A sign that something is going to be ancient, you have to take off your shoes. Slippers are on offer but are optional. I opted to not put on the slippers, but I advise putting them on, the lips of the ladders have a bump on the edge and it hurts going up and down.

General view of castle area.

And... some more castle and view.

It is darker than this inside the castle, you can wander around all 3 levels of what I presume is the main old bit.

Some more ocean view.

For a while I had the whole top level to myself, I was not tempted to engrave my name into it like people seem to keep doing all around the world including in Japan lately and posting on tiktok and wondering why they get arrested.

I swear there are almost no more view shots.

Never put your eyes on these things.

The ladders are very steep. You can legitimately smack your head on things.

I chose a different path down that went past a secret garden that looked dead that I could not figure out how to get into.

And for my last shot of the day, food trucks on the castle grounds. Mostly fried stuff but the one on the left is making pizzas. I probably should have had a pizza.

I like my hotel a lot, but I would like it more if for some reason it had a tractor on the balcony like this one.

Long time readers may recall that while in Korea, I enjoy wandering along the many drains. I thought I would go and check out the drain scene in Matsuyama. Pitch black, no water, no trees, no view. Hmm, Korea has superior drains.

I have no idea what is going on at LIVEHOUSE SALONKITTY, it did not seem large enough to be a live music venue. Also that guy has ridiculous hair. I am a street photographer now.

Here is a model shop. The window display is a bit hard to see here, but it had a heap of really old model cars that were completely covered in dust, and the shelves they were on were in a partial state of collapse.

Tonight's random restaurant shot. Not where I ate though.

It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready. There's a lot to unpack there.

And finally, 2nd Matsuyama ramen. I think it is a tie with the one from 2 nights ago, so it was great. Significantly more spicy, with an egg. But the previous one had a pile of vegetables. This place had an order on the ipad setup going, I think that was my first usage of the order on the ipad on this trip, but I have had a couple of scan the QR code to order experiences, and obviously, buy a ticket from the machine. Just as long as you do not talk to anyone, no matter the method, they are happy.

My journey to the station on foot under threatening skies went through the castle park.

Here is the JR Matsuyama station. I do not think I took a pic of it yet. It is small, but under re construction. There are signs lobbying for the Shinkansen to be built to Matsuyama.

Yes, Matsuyama is Songshan in Mandarin, which is an airport and major train station in down town Taipei. I was there in May this year.

Possibly while construction is going on, multiple trains leave from the same platform in opposite directions, to the right is the back of my train, to the left is the local train going in the opposite direction. I do believe some people got on the wrong train based on their panic as we set off. It was near here that I got shoved a few minutes earlier and yelled at, before the trains arrived. As best I could tell the guy did not get on any trains, he probably waits in the station all day for foreigners.

The inside of my train, which is the modern looking train in the above photo, is very orange, and the toilets are no flush squatters. Have fun with that ladies.

This is the mid point over the sea heading to Okayama. The bridge is in multiple segments connected by little islands.

Grey and raining for the entire journey.

This is Okayama. A few minutes beforehand, a security guard wanted to confiscate my camera.

And here is arriving at Shin-Osaka. I braved taking a photo on a train platform because I had ridden on the light blue Kagoshima to Shin-Osaka Shinkansen. Still dark and rainy.

And now for my room pics. It is less yellow than this. It is the same as hotels 1 and 2 but not 3 of this trip, in that it is a Sotetsu Fresa Inn. This one is right on top of the Namba subway station.

And for the final shot from my arduous journey, the very heavily requested shot of the toilet. Here is the toilet. Enjoy the toilet.

This is literally, the front door of my hotel. That is Takashimaya on the right. I do not know how I got such a good location for so cheap.

Illuminations have arrived. Maybe they are in the trees here year round? I do not think they are.

The covered shopping streets start across the road, and go for many many miles.

A little bit of light drizzle made this area slightly less busy when I wanted to take a photo, which was good.

Because as you can see, under the roof it is jam packed full of sneezing and coughing people who have a 7th sense that detects moisture in the air and causes them to immediately commence de-lunging.

The spot. The actual Glico man was a Filipino athlete, used to advertise candy. The best know is of course, pocky, the chocolate covered sticks.

Walk undercover long enough and the crowds thin out. The stores start to feature wigs, clogs and shopping carts. Some of them were closing at 6pm on a Friday. This is not the case within a kilometre radius of Glico man, but if you stay the course you get to the sad end of the long shopping tunnel.

The illuminations on the parallel street go for about the same distance. Each section has it's own colour combo, no doubt with a very deep meaning.

Rissoles for dinner, or as Japan calls them, hamburg. This is what you have instead of a steak in Japan. An actual steak is a cube of marbled steak from an immaculately conceived cow that costs probably $500, other than that 'hamburg steak' it is. This place is a little more grown up than my normal dinner choices, Japanese only menu, and the meal came with a drink included, it took a lot of convincing to get a coke, which I did not even want, instead of a red wine. It was actually a backup choice, I had chosen a hamburg steak location with plastic seats and trays but when I asked for a table for one they turned me away.

And since on my way back the boat was going past, here is one more of Dotonbori.
Tomorrow is a hybrid hike / deer visit day.

Here is JR Nara station. Today is the last day of validity for my Setouchi area pass. Fear not, tomorrow I will start using my JR West all area pass.

This is kind of the main street that runs parallel to the tourist street that goes past all the deer and shrines. Quite grey at this early hour.

There are still shrines on this street.

As I headed up the hill for a while but still on the road, the density of shrines increased.

Last time I was here I took a great photo at this spot late in the afternoon, better than today's early morning shot.

Here is the Primeval forest, the trail is like this all the way round. It does not really count as a hike I don't think. There were not too many people on it today, just joggers, maybe 5 cars went past, I think there is a toll to take a car.

There are a couple of shrines along the way, nothing grand, probably old though.

This lake and dam at the top was a lot more colourful last time too. Still not a lot of colour around, even at the top of a hill in Nara.

Over the road from the Primeveal forest national historic world heritage area, is a logging operation.

Time to head off the main road to a shrine of sorts.

First a slippery path down.

Hmm, a waterfall. As far as waterfalls go, its no Niagara.

Here is the ancient shrine in the woods. There was a cool graveyard too but that was fenced off.

At end of the Primeval loop I went up the hill to Wakakusayama Hill to appreciate the view, and the deer. Here is a deer. Later in the day I saw a guy washing blood off the ends of his fingers, hand feeding the deer is discouraged.

Here is the view. Nara is quite a large city.

There is a pay area to get up to here that makes it a short walk. I will go back down it shortly as you shall see. I decided to honour the gate at the bottom and offer to pay. CASH ONLY. I regretted being honest, now I have a wallet full of useless coins.

This guy still has his horns.

The view down the pay trail is quite nice looking. Here is a valley of flowers looking into the sun.

There are more shrines down there, lots more.

It is kind of like a ski field, but it is not.

See what I mean?

Behold, my head. It was a bit windy along this ridge.

Probably the best deer shot of the day.

Not too crowded today.

Back at the bottom. My camera really does not know what to do with anything yellow.

Now to walk back down the hill past the throngs of lazy tourists to the train.

Here are the training grounds for the deer fights. That big building in the background is the deer fighting stadium, where the most aggressive deer are pitted against each other to settle their differences. The loser is dehorned, the winner is killed and eaten.

Lots of people at lunch time.

If it does start raining, Nara has you covered, with a covered shopping street.

But they also have the uncovered variety. OK, that is enough Nara for today, my third visit to the deer fanciers paradise.

Starting off in Namba by Dotonbori, still very busy.

Another boat (actually 2) on the hand dug ancient canal, so another photo. Looking in the opposite direction to last night.

Possible dinner option. All foreigners! I couldn't do it, but do not worry, I did almost the same later.

Example of one street over to the right from the main covered shopping street. Lots of nice restaurants along here, some fancy, some more my style.

Not everywhere is busy.

In a country that still has secret home toilet paper delivery services, they now have the ladies only pharmacy. What goes on in there? They have a xmas tree.

This is Osaka city hall. Pretty small really. Nearby they were handing out trophies for the Osaka city trials, which is the type of motorcycles they do parkour with over obstacles. There were a few food trucks but all the stalls were closing and someone on the stage burst into something resembling Ed Sheeran so I heckled and fled without collecting my trophy.

This is entering Umeda from the back streets. Actually a long street full of very fancy dining rooms (fancy invite only restaurants).

Also an actual red light district.

The Osaka station is enormous, despite not even being a bullet train station.

Have a bit more station.

Yodobashi Umeda is also enormous, I almost managed to get it all in frame, but not quite.

And here is my vegetarian but probably not vegan dinner, from one of my old favourites Soup Stock Tokyo. I chose the ratatouille and vegetable soup combo. I was the only male in the place. A hush came over the seating area as I carried in my tray. People took out their phones and made emergency appointments at the lady pharmacy.

And for my final pic of the 42,000 step day (surprisingly high), my former nemesis ferris wheel. I have actually ridden on this one!