Matsuyama

Well, after the horrid 13th, we, thankfully, had a nice relaxing slow paced day planned in Matsuyama. We got up not quite as early, took our time in the shower, which was nice. Then we gathered up our stuff and checked-out of the hostel. We stored our stuff in lockers and then looked for breakfast. Unfortunately, while we were looking at a restaurant this man came up to us and started speaking to us in English. Pretty good English, too. And he was telling us that the restaurant we were looking at was really good, especially their croquettes.

And then he started asking us all the usual questions, where were we from, where are we studying, blah blah blah. And then he wanted to show us around the little shopping street we were on. My friend, of course, was being polite and letting him lead us around, but then he started trying to give us gifts from a little souvenir store. Up to that point I'd only been mildly uncomfortable about being led around a place we're not familiar with by a complete stranger. But when he started telling us to pick something, that's when I decided it was time to ditch him.

I know that sounds mean, but, still. I'm a really cynical person, and I guess I just didn't like the fact that he was intruding on the schedule I'd so carefully made before actually leaving on this trip. At any rate, I was hungry and I was going to put an end to this. So I gave a dramatic gasp and widened my eyes and said that I'd left something at the hotel. So I grabbed my travel companion and ran.

So we ducked out of that street and hurried to the Dogo Onsen, where we KNEW he couldn't follow us. We payed our 1,200 yen and went inside. We were shown upstairs to a room where there were baskets with yukatas laying on the floor. We were told to change and then leave our clothes in the baskets. So we looked around, because there were also men in the room, and we saw this other older woman get up and go toward a door, so we followed her. We entered a long narrow room and she turned around and asked us if we spoke English. That was the second time that day that we met somebody who could speak perfect English.



We were SO happy that she spoke English because neither of us had been in an onsen (hotspring) before, and we weren't too sure about what to do. So she guided us through it. We were so lucky! So we changed into our yukatas and put our clothes back in the baskets. Then we followed the lady into the more private onsen (the one we payed 1,200 yen for). It was down stairs and we came into a locker room. We were supposed to take off our yukatas, put them in the lockers, and bring the little towels into the bath with us.

And that's really how it went. We took off our yukatas (a bit embarrassing) and went into the adjoining room that had the little showers and onsen. We showered, and slipped into the hot water. And it felt SOOO GOOD! We stayed in there for a couple of minutes, then got back out and showered again as the lady had instructed. Then we got back in and chatted with the lady and another college student who was in there with us. Of course we were in the lady's bath, so we didn't have to worry about that sort of thing.

Once we started feeling dizzy, though, we got out and toweled off, put our yukatas back on and went back up to that room to cool off a bit. The ladies that were waiting on the room gave us sweet senbei cookies and (for some odd reason) hot green tea. We waited for awhile and then went down to the cheaper onsen where the locals like to bathe. It was quite an experience, let me tell you. Most of the were really really old ladies who looked like they could barely walk by themselves, yet there they were hopping into this huge tub of really really hot water. After about 10 minutes we were dizzy again so we got back out and went back upstairs.

It was so amazing! I was wiping my arm dry when I noticed that it was still wet. So I wiped it again and sweat immediately beaded up! It was crazy, I don't think I've ever sweat that much before. Not to mention we both looked as if we had really bad sunburns.



And then we got to take a tour of the rooms and bath that are kept exclusively for the Imperial Family! Unfortunately I completely forgot that I had my camera with me, or I would have taken pictures. Sorry! But we also got to go into the private room where the man who wrote Botchan (Natsume Souseki) used to spend a lot of time.



And here's the Dogo Park. We stopped here to eat lunch since it was nearby.



Next is Nagoya.

Naruto and the 13th

So, yeah, the dreaded 13th. We woke up ridiculously early so that we could check out and catch our highway bus to Tokushima to see the Naruto whirlpools. Well, we made the bus, which was nice. We slept for most of the way there and I woke up when the bus passed through Naruto. Now if we had simply known that this bus would stop in Naruto, we might not have had the bad luck that we did that day. But, unfortunately, we weren't aware of that, so we went straight through Naruto and got off at Tokushima.



Well, we got to the Tokushima station alright (since it was right across the street from where the bus dropped us off). And we were so surprised! We went in, bought our tickets, but then looked around and couldn't figure out how to get on the platform. We could see the area that LOOKED like a place to go through, but there were no machines to take your ticket. Instead this lady was standing in a little booth in the middle of that area. We couldn't believe it! She stamped your ticket and let you through! Of course, we'd never been off of the main island before, and Tokushima is on Shikoku.



Well, we got on the train and it took us FOREVER to get to Naruto station. When we finally got there it was 10:45 and the schedule I'd written out said that we were supposed to catch the 10:54 train back to Tokushima station to catch our next bus there. While I was deliberating, my traveling companion said that we should just go ahead, go see the whirlpools really quick, hurry back and catch the next train back to Tokushima. And being the idiot that I am I didn't even bother to check the train schedule before I agreed.

We went outside to check out how to get to Naruto. We saw the bus schedule and figured the bus would be too slow. So, against our better judgement, we took a taxi out to the bridge. The taxi driver was really nice. When we got to the bridge he told us that he'd wait for us. So we ran inside, paid our 500 yen to get out onto the bridge and ran out over the bridge to get a view of the whirlpools.



Well, luck, like I said, wasn't with us that day and they had blocked off the part of the bridge where you could actually see the whirlpools. Sadly enough, we got a better view of them from the bus on the way to Tokushima(see first group of pictures). So we hurried back to the taxi, quite disappointed, and went back to Naruto station. Taxis are so expensive.

We got back into the station, bought our tickets to get back to Tokushima only to see that nobody was taking tickets. We look around and it just didn't hit us. All the signs were there: the station only had two tracks, it was the end of the line, and no trains were there. There were only 2 ticket machines and one lady working the station. We decided to check the time table (finally) and discovered to our horror that the next train wasn't going to leave Naruto station until 2 hours later.

...wow...

So we asked the lady at the ticket counter if there was some other way to get back to Tokushima station besides a taxi. She looked at us with that look that just screams "You idiots" and told us that there was a bus. She told us how to get to the bus stop and, thankfully, refunded our tickets for us. We went to the bus stop and waited. The bus was a bit late, so we were very tense, hoping against hope that we would get to the station in time.

Well, the bus definitely got us to Tokushima station earlier than the train would have, but we were still 20 minutes late. So we missed our bus to Matsuyama. We went into the bus company office and the lady told us that there was another bus that was going to leave at 3:50 and that we should just get on that one. So we had a couple of hours to just loaf around. So we got some lunch and then headed to a nearby bank since I was running low on cash.

We got to the bank and I gave them some traveler's cheques to exchange into yen. The man who took it from me (the bank manager, I assumed) held it up to the light and looked at it like he'd never seen anything like it in his life. Then he casually walked around and asked random worker if they knew what it was. This made me inordinately angry.

Manager: What is this? I've never seen anything like this before. She's telling me that it's money. And she wants money for it...

Me: It's...a t-r-a-v-e-l-e-r's c-h-e-q-u-e. You know, those things that can be used ANYwhere? You have a sign up that tells me what the exchange rate is for them. See? T-r-a-v-e-l-e-r's c-h-e-q-u-e.

Manager: She wants money for it. (to random worker) Do you know what this is?

Worker: Oh, goodness. What is that? I'm not sure...let me make a phone call...

So, by about that time I'm about ready to either hit something or cry. Since neither would have been very dignified I did my best not to do either. They finally gave me my yen, though. I was glad we weren't in a rush. We waited some more and then about 30 minutes before the next bus was supposed to depart we decided to go ahead and go up to the bus stop and check to make sure we could really get on the next bus since the lady in the office hadn't seemed to sure of herself.

We get up there and my travel buddy took the tickets up to the little booth and I waited nearby with our bags. After a while I decided to see what was up and so I walk up to where my friend is and the lady in the booth is chewing her out for missing the bus, so she snatched the ticket that my friend was holding and went to go change it. By that time I was at the window and she looked at me and my friend told her that she had another ticket and the lady chewed her out for not telling her there was another ticket.

Oh boy.

I'm pretty sure I shot her a death glare. It was then that I decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to speak to the lady so I went back to the waiting area with our bags. My friend came back and we waited some more. We got really good at that by the end of the trip.

Well, we got on the bus and got to Matsuyama just fine. We got on the tram and rode it to the Dogo Onsen area, where our youth hostel was supposed to be. We got off of the tram and got dinner and asked the convenience store clerk where the hostel was. But he didn't know. Gr.

So we ask various other people and they all give us bogus directions before we finally just stop in a hotel and ask directions. The guy was really nice, he gave us a map and showed us where to go. And, of course, it was up this HUGE hill! So we drag our luggage up this hill and find the youth hostel. By this time it's dark, we're tired, hungry, and just ready to sleep. But the old ladies who were running the place weren't very organized and it took them a good half hour to check us in.

What a day, let me tell you. Here's some pictures of the youth hostel we stayed at in Matsuyama.



Next is the Dogo Onsen and Dogo Park.

Nara

Then the next day we decided to do laundry. And we were so happy that the youth hostel had dryers. But, of course, they didn't work very well. When I came back after an hour, my clothes were really warm, but they were still wet. Not moist, wet. So I took them back to my room and hung them up as you can see in my previous photos. So that day I had no jeans to wear, so I went in pajama pants, as you will be able to see in some of the following pictures. However, my travel companion's clothing never actually dried until we got to the hotel in Nagoya about 3 days later.

But we left at about noon, so that we could finish our laundry, which...never actually happened. But anyway, we had to transfer to a private railway to get there, and the station was so confusing! Not NEARLY as user-friendly as the JR-line stations.



And then we walked from the station to Todai-ji which is HUGE. On the way we bought some senbei for the deer and fed them. Both of us got bitten when we didn't feed them more.




Then we made the short walk to the Kasuga shrine. It was so beautiful!



It was rather amazing how there was this HUGE green park-like area that makes up most of the city.

Next on the list is Naruto and the dreaded 13th.