I absolutely adore how the mist obscures parts of the scenery. So pretty!

If Cara and I were a team on The Amazing Race, this would have been the exact moment when we hit the Detour Challenge! There are two routes up to the summit. One is a long and winding path around the mountain. The other is a vertical race up the side of a giant rock wall on chains.

Guess which one we chose?

This shot gives a far better representation of the chain route. While I had envisioned a gradual slope, you are in fact climbing straight up a vertical rock wall. What you see in the picture is just one segment of one chain. There are three chains to climb. Each successive chain is higher and longer.

Remembering the words of Bear Grylls and doing my best to keep "three points of contact" on the rock at all times. On a side note, props to Cara for swiveling around and nonchalantly snapping one of the most majestic pictures ever!

After all the chains, I finally set foot on the summit!

Since Ishizuchi is one of Japan's 7 holy mountains, it is understandable that there would be a shrine atop the peak. There is also a convenience store where climbers can buy heavily overpriced bottles of tea and souvenir key chains featuring an owl mascot.

There is also an old-timey wooden sign to commemorate the journey.

Sadly, scenery shots like this are done no justice with digital photography. Take it from me, the green mountainside with the rolling mist and brightly colored leaves was truly breathtaking. It felt like something out of a fairytale.

As you can see, the autumn leaves were changing. Having been born and raised a Seattleite, I must say that this sight was quite beautiful.

HA HA! Fooled Ya! You thought I was on the summit. WRONG! Turns out, this jagged rocky spire shooting up through the mist is the actual summit. Our work had only just begun!

Beginning our final trek to the highest peak. In truth, it only takes an additional 20 minutes or so of climbing to get there from the shrine area.

The final ascent. Raise your hand if you are afraid of heights!

I wouldn't describe myself as someone who has a fear of heights. That being said, this final climb to the summit bordered on scary for me. I was fine as long as I forced myself to forget the fact that I was clinging to the side of a rock wall...six thousand feet in the air...without a safety harness.

Looking over the side of the cliff into the abyss of nothingness below.

...And we made it to the highest point in Shikoku! A fine looking group shot if I do say so myself. This is the actual summit of Mount Ishizuchi, named "Tengudake" in Japanese. The height is 1982 Meters or just over 6500 Feet.

Dogo Onsen (道後温泉)

Since I spent all last Thursday cruising around Matsuyama, I couldn't very well return home without a bath at Dogo.

With a history reportedly stretching back over 1500 years, Dogo Onsen is Japan's oldest and most famous hot spring. The main wooden bathhouse building was built in 1894 and draws tourists and bathing enthusiasts alike nearly year-round.

Bathing at Dogo is a wee bit complicated due to the many different packages available. There are two main bath tubs at Dogo; the larger Kami-no-Yu (Water of the Gods) and the more secluded and elegant Tama-no-Yu (Water of the Spirits). A basic bath-only visit in "Kami" will run you a mere 400 Yen. You can opt to sit on the second floor in a large communal room and drink tea following your bath for an additional fee.

Finally, access to the "Tama" tub runs even steeper. With the added price comes the luxury of a loaned towel (you are normally expected to bring your own or buy one in the gift shop) in addition to snacks in the communal sitting room. The highest price point will give you an hour to kill in your own private changing room as you guzzle tea and eat senbei. At this point you are paying near $20 for the entire bathing experience.

Since I arrived in the middle of the afternoon, the bath was fairly empty. While Dogo gets very crowded towards the evening, the only patrons there when I visited were elderly Japanese men. I was told by a friend that they are always there regardless of the day or time. It seems that octogenarians and tourists make up the basic clientele.

There was however one other foreigner briefly in the bathtub, who, judging by his accent was French. He approached me and asked in English if I thought it wise to sneak into the other more exclusive bath area (we were both in the no-frills Kami tub). I told him he could try, but that the staff members would likely just stop him en route.

This turned out to be exactly true. As I was drying off after my bath, one Japanese patron accidentally wandered up the stairs towards the second floor. He was about to barge in on all the socialites nibbling their crackers and sipping their tea without so much as a washcloth to cover his dignity. A male staff member came bolting through the changing room waving his arms and hollering "STOP!!! WAIT!!! SIR, NOT THAT WAY!!!"

It would seem that nonchalantly wandering naked dude was stopped just in the nick of time.

While we are on the subject of being naked in public, I find that it is always a slightly odd sensation to stand buck naked in a changing room as elderly Japanese women buzz around you, busying themselves with cleaning and straightening. I guess if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

The actual Kami-no-Yu bath tub was exactly what one would expect from the nation's oldest bathhouse - traditional. One giant granite tub in the center of a room with small cleaning stations lined around the perimeter of the pool. That's it. Nothing more needed!

The waters of Dogo are renowned for their purported curative properties. While I still had asthma upon leaving, I can report that the soak was incredibly refreshing, especially in the middle of the hot and humid day.

I certainly look forward to returning to Dogo when I have another free afternoon in Matsuyama. That being said, since there are at least three local onsen here in To-on City, I probably wouldn't travel all the way to Matsuyama just to bathe at Dogo.

Still, it's pretty neat to say that you've gotten squeaky clean at the oldest bathhouse in Japan.

B.E.W.

This archway marks the entrance to Dogo Onsen. More specifically, it marks the entrance to the souvenir shop-lined streets that take you up to the entrance of the bathhouse.

This is a picture of the "ashiyu" or foot spa. The same hot spring water that powers the bathhouse is funneled down into this little receptacle at the base of the resort town. Anyone and everyone is free to give their feet a quick soak.

These two young lovebirds were getting their picture taken by a professional crew. Nothing is more romantic than washing your feet next to the woman you love!

The Botchan Karakuri (windup) Clock Tower welcomes you to the Dogo Onsen area. The clock was erected in 1994 to commemorate the centennial of the current main wooden bathhouse building. Every hour on the hour passersby are treated to a show.

It's SHOWTIME!!!

I guess these figures are all supposed to be acting out different scenes from Natsume Soseki's novel Botchan. Despite the fact that I am almost finished with the book, I couldn't seem to pick out any familiar scenes from the mishmash of animatronic characters.

These two figures are talking...

...And these guys are bathing at Dogo Onsen! Do I smell product placement?

The entire clock tower rises out of the base to form a three-tiered pagoda.

Tsubaki-no-Yu (literally "water of the camellia") is Dogo's hip, in-your-face, younger brother. This more modernized bathhouse uses the same hot spring source as the Dogo main building but attracts far fewer tourists. If modernity and bathing is your thing, give it a look-see.

Character statues from Natsume Soseki's beloved novel Botchan. Soseki spent one year living in Matsuyama and working as a teacher (the parallels between his life and mine are already staggering!). Soseki often frequented Dogo Onsen and the bathhouse plays a key role in his book. In many ways, it is this very book that put Matsuyama and Ehime Prefecture on the map.

More characters from Botchan. There's the Madonna...and Redshirt. I'm one chapter away from finishing the book, so please don't spoil the ending!

Hey everybody look! It's renowned author and beloved national treasure Natsume Soseki! Looks like he just finished one of his trademark baths at Dogo.

The name says it all - Welcome to Dogo Onsen! Dogo is the oldest and most famous hot spring in all of Japan. This traditional wooden bathhouse has a history that stretches back over 1500 years.

This main building of Dogo Onsen was built in 1894.

Another shot of the main Dogo building. The area surrounding the onsen definitely evokes an old style resort town. There are tons of specialty souvenir shops as well as multiple vendors tempting you to take a ride in a rickshaw (pictured).

For an additional fee, one can retire to a large communal upstairs room after bathing (or a private room for even more money!). I'm a cheapskate so I didn't pay the extra coinage needed to drink the green tea and munch on senbei.

A white heron stands perched on the roof of Dogo Onsen. The legend goes that a heron with a wounded leg landed in the area. A mere ruffle of his feathers through the gushing natural spring water of the Dogo area was enough to heal his leg up good as new!

A closeup of the heron. The peeling paint makes it look like the bird was shot two times in the rear by a hunter.

I am 78.6% certain that this tree is a weeping willow.

A small cemetery built into the side of a hill.

Walking up the huge set of stairs to get to Isaniwa Shrine in Dogo. I actually found this place by accident while unsuccessfully searching for the more popularly visited Ishiteji Temple.

The twisted straw rope above the entrance is known as a "shimenawa." It symbolically separates the clean and sacred shrine from the unclean outside world.

A closeup of the temple. I'm particularly proud that my photo captured the swaying gohei (wooden wands covered with white paper streamers).

A shot looking down the temple stairs towards Dogo.

This interesting house (shop?) is shaped like a giant Daruma doll.

The Ballad of Bone and Kuma (いもたき会)

Since last Tuesday was the Japanese national holiday Autumn Equinox Day (秋分の日), Cara and I took it upon ourselves to attend a local imotaki-kai (いもたき会) and gorge ourselves on this traditional seasonal soup.

Imotaki-kai (the "kai" means a meeting or party) is a seasonal celebration held throughout Ehime Prefecture from the middle of September until early October. The outdoor gathering is a chance to meet with family and friends and eat a hearty soup as you gaze at the moon.

One pays for the dining atmosphere at an imotaki-kai. The set admission fee gives you a seat on a towel in front of a tiny gas burner and a tray of ingredients. You are expected to boil the soup to your own individual liking.  Since we were the only two non-Japanese people present, we had to smile and reassure multiple staff members that we understood the basic cooking concept of "put stuff in bowl and boil until done."

The "Imotaki" soup that gives the celebration its name can be loosely likened to American chicken soup. Among its many ingredients are noodles (albeit udon), chicken, onions, and potatoes (specifically taro potatoes, known as "imo" in Japanese). The soup also contains traditional Japanese ingredients like fish cake, konyaku, and tofu as well. The resulting soup is rich, flavorful, and incredible filling. So filling in fact, that Cara and I both had to lay down and rest our bellies due to over-fullness immediately after finishing the pot.

As we neared the end of our meal, a friendly woman from a party sitting on the towel across from us came over and offered to take our picture. She proceeded to take no fewer than ten different pictures using every setting imaginable on Cara's camera. While a good 2/3 or them turned out comically blurry or underexposed, there were a few keepers.

It wasn't long after the photo shoot that the remaining members of the party fluttered their hands upwards, signaling for us to come join their group. Turns out our photographer's name was Kuma. Kuma means bear in Japanese and she demonstrated this by holding her arms above her head and growling for us all. While this may be the way she commonly introduces herself, I think the added theatrics were likely a result of the flowing booze.

Indeed, every member of our new "adopted family" was heavily intoxicated by the time we pulled up a cushion. Our hosts immediately asked for drink selections. I was poured heaping glasses of a yellowish colored shochu (sake). I happily drank all the cups given to me.

The more I drink the more I lose my ability to speak coherent Japanese. Luckily, I seem to retain most of my listening comprehension skills. It turns out that the group of eight middle-aged adults all met when they were middle school or high school students (I can't remember which). One group member's parents used to own a little eating place that the kids would all go to after school and hang out. I was told that for them, the imotaki-kai was a class reunion of sorts and that they don't have many opportunities to see each other.

By far the most entertaining member of the group was Mr. Ki*. Mr. Ki volunteers at the sightseeing center in Matsuyama City, and as such, in addition to sporting an encyclopedic knowledge of every festival and event in the area, spoke some English. To be fair, his English mostly followed the pattern of emphatically saying words like "YEAH" "ALL RIGHT" or "WOW!" after a long string of Japanese.

Mr. Ki couldn't remember our names. He asked Cara what her name was for the third time and Kuma, thinking he was talking to her, began to growl and wave her arms above her head again while repeating the word Kuma over and over. Thus, Cara became linked to the name Kuma (the bear) for the rest of the evening. Meanwhile, my name changed every time it was spoken aloud. I was Bill, Bob, and Ban. My personal favorite of the evening was Bone. Cara and I still use the nicknames Kuma and Bone when referring to each other.

A karaoke box sat on a small stage underneath the Shigenobu River imotaki-kai banner. After listening to an untold number of shy children whisper the theme song to the latest Power Rangers series into the mic, it was our turn to sing in English. We successfully performed "Let it Be" and tried our best to harmonize as the different parties in the audience all clapped along.

Returning back to the towel, our new friends were disappointed to hear that Cara and I weren't married. Further frowns greeted us when we used the label "friends" and admitted that we hadn't yet held hands (or held minds? This bit about sharing each other's thoughts was completely lost in translation for me).

The only remedy it seemed was for us to return to the karaoke box and sing some traditional Japanese enka (folk music) duets about falling in love. Our final song of the evening was, "The Day Love Was Born" ( 愛が生まれた日). Since neither of us had any idea as to the melody of these songs, we had no choice but to make up our own while reading the Japanese lyrics off the screen. The rest of the group joined us onstage and acted as backup dancers and singers. They, it would seem, were singing the actual melody

And so concluded Bone and Kuma's live stage show. Mr. Ki gave us souvenir packs of udon noodles as we parted ways for the evening. Walking back home, our last love song's two distinct melodies lingered in my ears...

Sometimes its the songs you make up on the spot that end up sounding the best.

B.E.W.

*One reason why I call the man in question "Mr. Ki" is because I simply forgot his real name while ingesting multiple cups of shochu. However, this name also references a very special Matsuyama festival that he told me all about during our time together. For the full explanation, you'll have to wait a few more posts...

TO BE CONTINUED! 

This sign welcomes you to the annual imotaki-kai held at the Shigenobu River. You can just barely make out the karaoke machine down below where Cara and I were forced to sing love songs in Japanese. Imotaki-kai in Japan usually run from mid September until the beginning of October.

Seating at the imotaki-kai was a towel on the ground. The night wasn't clear enough for good moon viewing or star gazing.

Imotaki ingredients - including; taro potatoes, chicken, tofu, udon noodles...

And here was our pot and little gas burner for cooking the soup.

Back In Action

I apologize profusely for the recent lack of updates. You can picture me bowing deeply if it helps with the anger. I have some fun events planned for this weekend, so there should be some good stories and pictures on the way!

The reason for the delay is that the fall semester just started yesterday at Ehime University, and as such I spent most of the weekend working to get course materials in order for my intro and advanced English classes. Tuesday had me stuck in the copy room until past 2 AM. While I knew that photocopying a 100 page course reader for 100 students would take a long time, I didn’t account for the extra time wasted due to diabolical copy machine paper jams.

One particularly spectacular paper jam set off a chain reaction inside the copier, systematically disabling the entire machine. I had to pull out around 10 separate sheets of crumpled paper from every sector of the innards. By the time I was done, I was so smudged with ink that I looked like Bert the chimney sweep from Marry Poppins.

Oh…and in other news, my new refrigerator arrived yesterday afternoon. It is sleek, silver, and runs incredibly quiet. Now all I need to do is go grocery shopping and fill the baby up! I plan to do that (and laundry) sometime in the not too distant future.

Due to a cancellation in my schedule, I was able to spend most of the day exploring Matsuyama City. Here are a few pictures I snapped while walking around the Gintengai and Okaido shopping arcades.

B.E.W.

This sea of cute yellow beanies can mean only one thing...

CLASS FIELD TRIP!!! 

Here is a shot of the famous ferris wheel atop the Takashimaya department store at Matsuyama Station.  I have yet to ride it.  

This just doesn't make a (s)lot of sense.

These manikin halves thrust their sexy booties at you to sell pants.

Is this an establishment where children come to rest everyday?