Kind of an ironic song to be listening to while I write this. My trip has been anything but uninteresting.
At any rate, my back is killing me right now. I just typed up 3 days worth of entries and these chairs have no back support. I need a massage... or some more time in those baths from today.
We woke up late today. Figured that since we were just going to an 温泉 (onsen) to relax today, we might as well make it an entirely chill day. We watched some of the olympics, slowly got ready, g-talked a bit. It was nice.
When we were ready, we headed down to the city. We picked up some onigiri on the way for breakfast, though it was actually lunch time. We sat on a bench to eat in front of the 道後 (Dogo) Clocktower and it just so happened to be exactly noon. We weren't expecting it when the clocktower started playing music and growing. Yes, growing. It doubled in height to make little scenes of the 温泉 (onsen) visible. It was really cute. We lucked out seeing it. Didn't even know it did that.
After eating, we headed over to the baths. We got the premium package. You get use of the nicest bath, a private room to lounge in, yukata to use, a towel, 坊っちゃん団子 (Bocchan dango), and tea. Totally worth it. They were all really accommodating there.
In the baths we had a nice conversation with this teacher from 横浜 (Yokohama) who came to the 温泉 just for the day. She teaches Japanese to foreign students at a school there, so her English was fantastic. It's kind of hilarious having a conversation with a random person completely naked. Not so hard to be candid with them.
The room we got had a nice view of the city and the 団子 were really delicious. 坊っちゃん is a famous novel written by 夏目漱石 (Natsume Souseki) in 1906. The main character in the novel enjoyed going to the 道後温泉. That's actually part of what makes 道後温泉 such a tourist spot. They keep a room on the third floor especially for 坊っちゃん.
There was actually a lot of historical stuff in the 温泉. After we were done with our stay, they gave us a small tour of some of the other historical spots in the 温泉. Several emperors over the eras have come to rest at the 温泉. They've got some royal artifacts stored there, too. It was something cool that we weren't expecting.
After the baths, we took a tram down to the main city portion of 松山 to look around. It's a really nice area. Their shopping arcade is HUGE. Japan seems to be quite hep on never-ending shopping arcades.
We decided to go for a more American dinner. Udon gets old when you eat it every night. McDonald's has this special series going on. They're releasing a burger for four states: Texas, New York, Hawaii, and California. We tried the Texas burger when it was out. It was pretty good. We missed the New York burger, and now they're on Hawaii. It was a solid burger. Worthy of being related to America; though I don't know that you'd ever see a burger with those kinds of fixins in America ever. It had an egg, bacon, burger, lettuce, mayo, some secret sauce, and a wheat bun. It sounds so random when I list out the ingredients, but it wasn't bad.
That was our day. After dinner we just headed back here. We have to figure out how to catch a ferry back to 本州 (Honshu) tomorrow. The people at this Youth Hostel probably know. If they don't we'll head down to the regional sight seeing office. Once we get back on the main island, we catch a train from 広島 to 岩国. I don't know if they'll have internet at the other Youth Hostels, so it might be a while before my next post. I'll keep hand writing them though, so when I get back you'll get all my stories.
Also... 11 days and I get to go back to America for 3 weeks! I'm so jazzed. I can't wait to play taiko and see my family and friends again.
Right now though, I'm quite enjoying my hobo-ing around Japan.
Love until later,
Caitlin D.
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