Out of the Valley

We had our last ride down the eccentric funicular, noting again the rich tree life passing underneath. Cherry and plum and camellia, their blossoms all finished now. Maples of all shades of green and red. Dogwood, birch, cedar, pine, linden, and more I do not know. Wisteria winding throughout, slowly crushing the life out of the trees bu doing so with grace and spectacular blossoms. Our last Iya Valley onsen and we savoured every intake of sulphur-smelling breath.

going down

feeling groovy

our funicular is decorated with wisteria, what about yours?

the triple decker onsen

The staff all bowed to our departing shuttle and we wended our way back down to Oboke station, then caught the train back to Todatsu where we changed for another heading south to Matsuyama. 

Martin waiting for someone at the tippy love bench

family forest adventure where you too could travel in a bug car

This is the largest city on the island of Shikoku, and a nice one, bounded by the ocean in the west and mountains in the running north to south making an eastern city border. Matsuyama's is one of the more impressive ones, having an incredible view far out to see and to every mountain valley and pass. 

An Incan might well shrug and wonder what all the fuss is about, but Japan is proud of its castle walls, nowhere more so than in Matsuyama. They swoop up in a clean curve to the towers above, and have been able to withstand earthquakes to a point, although get built up again during every restoration. 

Japan is fond of its titles and designations, and it must have been a hard day for this city when the cultural properties law changed and Matsuyama castle was removed from the National Treasures list and was downgraded to being an Important Cultural Property instead.

Matsuyama is famous for two things, one so famous I had never heard of it. A novel called Botchan, published in 1906, is still read and fondly remembered especially by older Japanese for its comic tale of morality and humanity. Loosely autobiographical, the author had come here, and used Matsuyama for a key part of the story. 

A clock was built that includes many of the characters of Botchan that emerge at the top of the hour. If you think this is just an ordinary city clock, with a steam whistle or a cuckoo, you are in for a treat. It is more like a treasure case that keeps opening and revealing more to the astonishment and delight of the crowds that stand around it. People are constantly taking each others photos in front of the clock, and when it is near the top of the hour, a crowd of at least 50 people stand with cameras ready to film it. This is now a book I must read.

5:00pm - and now it starts! the top lifts and reveals
Botchan, and then the clock dial turns

"Madonna" the love interest appears along with
other characters out of side doors

the clock lifts more and reveals a circulating
comic collection of men in the onsen

doors open....

two more characters - and a few
of the many photographers

more characters out of more side doors -
they all turn or tip or rock or nod

and now it's back to normal and everyone leaves

The other famous thing here, which coincidentally was included in Botchan, is the Dogo Onsen, the oldest public bath in Japan. 

Botsan's room is top left

the whole sprawling complex at night, when we went

the side

rooves with the originl bather - the egret

yakata-wearing visitors deciding on which option to try

The legend is that, some 3,000 years ago, an egret with a hurt foot came to wash it in the natural hot spring everyday, and the people around saw that the foot got better and thought perhaps the water would be good for them too. The bath has been rebuilt many times, the latest incarnation being 1894. There are three levels - the basic baths "Water of the Gods" on Level 1. Women have one large hot bath and men have two smaller ones, but both with shiny grey granite walls and large blue and white tiles tracing the history of the Onsen, with white cranes and local people using it. 

Level two is a more private bath experience with "Water of the Spirits" as well as large resting room for those who have paid a little more to sit after their elevated bath and have tea and a biscuit. Level 3 is comprised of private rooms where tea and biscuits are brought to you. 

There is also a small exhibition of historical artifacts on Level 2 that anyone who asks is free to look at. It is mostly ancient items that have been unearthed during excavations for the onsen's renovations. I was particularly taken with three pottery bowls of a reddish-black hue, with a gold rim and mat gold 16 petaled chrysanthemums in their centres. For the emperor to use if he comes - he even has his own private bath here should he visit. Perhaps because I was particularly appreciative, I don't know, but I was told I would be allowed to go up to the third level and go to the back room, which is where the author of Botchan (and the lead character of the book) preferred to take his tea after bathing, with a little balcony looking out to the square below, and which is now set aside as Botchan's room.

Rooms in Japan are sized by the number of tatami mats they hold, as a tatami mat is a specific size (approximately 3 feet/1 metre by 7 feet/2 metres). So if we say something is a certain number of square feet or square metres, here it is referenced as a certain number of tatami mats. Botchan's room is 6 tatami mats, a good size for resting and tea-taking.

tatami intersection