Day 12 in Japan: Takamatsu



A really short post today.

Japan's "mainland" consists of four primary islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Today we caught a series of trains, one of which took us over a Very Long Bridge from Honshu to Shikoku. We spent the afternoon and night in Takamatsu, which was probably the biggest surprise of the trip. The tall English-speaking policeman at Nara had told us to make sure we ate udon noodles there, but apart from that we had no expectations. Our reason for staying there this night was because we didn't want to spend too much of the day travelling, and this was a convenient stopover. The hotel, when we eventually found it, didn't augur well: the room had peeling plaster on the walls and reeked of stale tobacco, But for just a thousand yen (ouch!) we were able to move to a smoke-free room.

And in the late afternoon we went for a walk in Ritsurin Koen, a huge traditional Japanese garden that had belonged to a samurai family hundreds of years ago and has been kept up as a public garden. These photos (all but one taken by Penny) hardly do it justice. Especially in a light, misty rain, it was just sublime.



In the evening we entered a likely looking establishment. 'Do you have an english menu?' produced the now familiar panicky response, and the answer, 'Only Japanese food.' But we managed to order by saying yes and no to a series of questions: 'Tempura?' 'Yes.' 'Udon?' 'Yes.' 'Teriyaki?' 'Yes.' 'Sashimi?' 'No.' And so on. The meal was excellent. And now I have to leave you to watch Wire in the Blood.

Posted: Fri - September 26, 2008 at 07:45 PM           |

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