Shikoku road trip

Last night, at 7pm, we got back from our three day road trip round Shikoku.  We put 700km on the odometer, had a bit of colour on our arms and got lots and lots of photos - altogether a successful trip.

In the weekend we got really low on sleep ('accidentally' went to bed at 5:20am on Friday night...!), so on Sunday night we crashed out at 9pm in order to recharge our batteries and wake up bright and early on Monday.  Against all our principles, we woke up at 7 on Monday, despite it being our holiday, and were on the road a bit after 8am.  We took the Shimanami highway - a series of beautiful bridges over small islands, linking Honshu to Shikoku.  I used to take the first two bridges regularly when I worked at the private school on Innoshima and really really really wanted to follow the whole highway to Shikoku.  I was not disappointed!  On the way out there Jeff drove (ok, most of the holiday Jeff drove) while I looked around and took pictures.

When we hit Shikoku we headed down to Kochi - a city in the centre of the island, near the southern coast.  We had a lovely wander round the castle (one of only 12 originals left in Japan) and appreciated the lovely breeze at the top while we took lots of pictures of the view.  Although the castle itself was a much less imposing, grand structure than others, the grounds and gardens were lovely - very green and meandering.

We took advantage of the natural air conditioning at the top of the tower to jump on the smartphones and find our hotel for the night.  Our last minute planning was rewarded with a half price last minute sale on the fancy-schmancy place we had walked past on our way to the castle, so on our way back to the car we ducked in and booked ourselves a very luxurious room for the same price we intended to pay at a budget hotel.  Ah, lovely smelling toiletries and space to put our bags without tripping over them... not to be underestimated!!

In the afternoon we drove to a beach that our Lonely Planet mentioned, describing it as a popular local beach.  Equipped with togs, towel and jandals we headed out... to one of the more bizarre experiences we have had in Japan.  When we reached the beach, there was a large sign reading 'No Swimming - Big Waves'.  We looked at the sign, then looked at the almost waveless ocean.  Back to the sign, back to the ocean...  We took a picture for posterity, then walked across the sand down to the sea, intending to get a picture of me standing on the waters edge looking for these 'big waves'.  But as soon as we transitioned from the dry sand to the wet, we heard a furious whistling.  A man in a cream and blue uniform, epaulettes and all, came running down the beach towards us, waving his hands furiously.  Jeff signalled that we got the message, but he didn't stop loitering and fretting until we were back up onto the concrete path that ran above the high tide point.

We couldn't stop giggling.  The idea of so many people coming to enjoy a beach where they weren't allowed to get wet, and the idea of the almost non-existant waves being dangerous was so ridiculous.  While we wandered, taking pictures and investigating shrines, we noticed a bunch of school children repeatedly getting whistled at and shouted at by another very worked-up guard.  We quietly cheered on the children!

Back at Kochi city we went wandering, looking for dinner inspiration and found what Lonely Planet had described as a bunch of street stalls.  Instead it was like a big foodhall in a factory.  There were all types of food and drink, with crowded wooden benches in the middle.  Jeff went for seared bonito (the local specialty), dipped in yuzu (a yummy type of citrus, something between a lemon and an orange) sauce, accompanied by beer.  I went for the traditional dish of, err, Indian chickpea curry, with a glass of yuzu alcohol.  It was a really tasty dinner and an even better atmosphere.  I had been the one who was unhappy with the other restaurants we had found earlier, while Jeff was so hungry he would have eaten anywhere, so once we found this place - and once Jeff tasted his fish - he couldn't repeat enough how happy he was that I hadn't settled for any of the earlier restaurants.  His eyes glaze over whenever he remembers that meal.

The next day we headed down to Shimanto city - a small, tired-looking city near the southern tip of the island.  On the way we found a real beach - 2km long, decent waves and beautiful warm water.  We spent about an hour diving under the waves and trying to body surf.  When we had enough salt in our eyes and sand in our togs, we headed back to shore, happy and refreshed.

Next stop was Shimanto city, to find our accommodation for the night.  All the hotels felt old and tired and we were quoted prices that didn't reflect the fact that if they didn't rent us the room now, at 4pm on a Tuesday, they weren't going to rent it at all.  We ran round the handful of hotels doing a price comparison (most were not 'modern' enough to be online, apparently!) and we went with the cheapest - stained carpet, air con that was like standing in a gale and 1000 yen more than our beautiful luxury room the night before.

Things perked up at dinner, when we found an Italian place that served the best pizza I've had in Japan.  One was bacon and vegetable (zucchini, broccoli and ochra) and the other was tomato and smoked duck.  The smoked duck one was particularly delicious - salty and tangy.

After dinner we went for a walk along the riverbank where Jeff gave me a lesson in skimming stones and we achieved nothing more than getting another set of clothes completely sweat-soaked.  I'm not sure if Shimanto was actually hotter than anywhere else, but that twilight walk next to the river was the most I've sweated all year!  I thought I was being excessive packing six outfits for three days, but it was spot-on!

The last day was the most driving of our trip.  We drove inland across the bottom of the island, then followed the coast upwards.  The scenery was stunning.  The hillsides above and below us were stepped to allow citrus to be planted on these incredibly steep hills (if there weren't trees on them I would call them cliffs!).  At the base of the hills, waves lapped at tiny little bays where the citrus trees ended, just begging you to explore them by kayak.  Across the water we could make out distant mountains, which Jeff's iphone informed us were Kyushu.

The roads were super narrow and windy and the other traffic was noticeably ruder than up in this area - cars, trucks and motorcycles whizzed past with never a thank-you nod as we squeezed to the side of the road.  All's well that ends well and we didn't die, but there were a few close encounters that got our hearts racing!

After lunch we came upon a little manufactured bay, of the type Japan loves - concrete steps on either side, a shallow slope of yellow sand and a net to keep out any sea creatures that might have thought about joining you (sorry Opo!).  We went for a wade to cool down before finishing the last long leg back home.

Once we were on the highway, favouring speed over sightseeing, I took over driving.  This was great for the bridges, as it allowed Jeff to enjoy the view I had seen on our way over on Monday.  We had some amusing moments trying to take pictures of the road signs for tanuki ('raccoon dogs' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_raccoon_dog) and inoshishi (wild boar) on the highway.  There was some artistic license used in the illustrations - tanuki look like cuddly toys lying on the road while inoshishi look like high speed creatures dashing into the undergrowth.  Anyway, we got some pictures, so hopefully those will be loaded to facebook soon.

Back home we unloaded everything and crashed out pretty early.  We are now in school holidays so Jeff is at his Board of Education, hopefully studying Japanese but probably watching movies, and I'm hanging out at school catching up on the emails I ignored over the last five days.  Tomorrow afternoon I have my English club coming in to school so I should have a think about what I intend to do with them.  It may involve watching Boy.  I don't expect them to understand native-speed English, but I figure they'll understand all the Michael Jackson references.  Will see how much they can watch before they get bored...

Happy holidays to all those who have summer break now, and to those of you working through the winter, focus on the positives - you don't get a sweat up just by breathing!