Adventures with Tye!: Day 10 - Matsuyama, Ehime!

5/8/2017

This morning we slept in a little bit and got some well-needed rest. When we finally woke up and got ready we decided that we didn’t want to be in the car at all today, so we switched a few things around and decided to move our Matsuyama exploring day to today instead of tomorrow.

My friend Tehya and Derrick lie pretty near the central of Matsuyama City and everything is within about a twenty minute walk from their house. So that’s what we were going to do today, walk.

This is a train that you can buy a ticket for and ride around the streets of the city. I didn't know about it until after I saw it, though. 

Such a cute little train!

We started out walking about fifteen minutes to the local mall/shopping street called Okaido. 

It was a pretty slow morning.

 The floors inside the shopping center have pretty pictures depicting some of the sights around Matsuyama.

Matsuyama Castle

The local tour train.

The Tatara Bridge between Ehime and Hiroshima.

Dogo Onsen.

Just inside the Okaido shopping street, and to the left, is a small restaurant called the Flying Scotsman. It looks like a train and is decorated in 1900’s – 1920’s decorations. It is so cool! 

The booths look like private train cars or train benches! Tehya recommended this place to us the night before. 

Tye and I decided to split a sandwich and a stack of pancakes, so we could have both sweet and savory things to eat. We also got a basket of French fries.

The china on the table filled with sugar and marmalade.

Look at how cute the sugar is! So colorful!

The pancakes were so thick! We got two of them, but we were stuffed by the time they arrived, we would have been good just getting one. These pancakes were so delicious!

From here we walked down the road a short distance ‘till we got to the entrance to Matsuyama Castle.  On the way we passed the local manhole cover and a few of it's color variations. 

We passed a nice park. There was a house next to the park that looked like it was in the middle of renovations, and under the scaffolding beneath the house, there was a taxidermy white fox. That would be gone within an afternoon in america.

When we got closer to the castle there was a prestigious high school and a really cool statue.

On the way up to the castle there is a shrine that you can pass through. It was well taken care of. We saw a caretaker sweeping the leaf-litter around the temple grounds. 

There is a ropeway that you can ride to the top of the hill that the castle is on. It is about $13 per person. This is because the walk up to the castle is quite steep and rather exhausting. But Tye and I were in the mood for a hike, so we set out on foot. We stopped once for a water break on the way up, but we made it. There were people riding the ropeway looking down on us as we hiked. They looked at us with confusion as to why we would subject ourselves to subject ourselves to hiking up the castle hill on such a hot day.

We finally got to the top and started walking around the castle grounds.

We read the signs around the property that tell you about the history of the castle and defense tactics that were used while defending the castle. At one point there is a wide road that heads towards the castle that forks suddenly with one half running straight along the castle wall and one branching towards the castle entrance and making a u-turn with a hill. This would cause any charging army of foot soldiers to split with some running along the wall and a smaller portion continuing on the correct route. The path that lead straight along the wall goes for a long distance before coming to a dead end with a castle wall cutting you off from progress and a steep hill down the side of the mountain. Here archers would be waiting on the wall to pick off these soldiers with nowhere to run.

The rest of the walk throughout the castle walls had sharp turns and tall walls with small windows above for archers to shoot down on invading foot soldiers below.

The castle was really interesting, and it was one of the first castles in Japan that I could really visualize the planning in place for defense and battle.

The inside of the castle was mostly empty with pathways that lead along corridors and through rooms with display cases showing old items that were used by the noble families and people living there.

There was a place where you could dress up in samurai armor and take a picture, but there were other people doing it at the time and we weren’t bothered enough to wait for them.

The top of the castle there was a large empty room with viewing binoculars and wonderful views of the city for 360 degrees. It was a lovely view.

After this we went back down to the grounds of the castle where they had a little gift shop with ice cream and soda. We stopped for a Coca-Cola and to mentally prepare for the hot hike to our next destination, which was a forty minute walk away, Ishiteji.

We set out straight from the castle and walked through the city to a nearby(ish) mountain. It would have been the same amount of time to walk the twenty minutes back to Tehya’s house to retrieve my car and then drive to Ishiteji as it would be to walk. So we decided to stay out of the car and be healthy. It was hot and humid, but it felt good to be walking.

Forty minutes later we arrived at Ishiteji. We entered at a side entrance, so the first thing we saw was this small hill covered in small Jizo-sama statues.

Ishite-ji is the 51st temple on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage. This temple belongs to the Shingon sect of Buddhism.

It is famous because of the story of the legendary figure Emon Saburo. It is said years ago he was young and rich with eight sons. One day a pilgrim came to his house asking for alms, which he refused. He broke the begging bowl of the pilgrim and chased him away. Soon after all eight of his sons died. It was then that he realized that the pilgrim he had abused and chased away was the great monk Kobo Daishi.

He felt terrible and sought the monk to beg forgiveness. He traveled around the island clockwise twice but didn’t find Kobo Daishi. He then tried walking the route in a counter-clockwise direction. During this time, Emon got sick and was on his deathbed. It was then that Kobo Daishi appeared to him to grant him forgiveness.

It was here on his deathbed that Emon asked Kobo Daishi to let him be born into a wealthy family in Matsuyama, Ehime so that he could grow up and restore a neglected and dilapidated temple.

Soon after, it is said that an infant was born to the lord of Iyo Province holding a stone in his hand which read “Emon is reborn.” When the baby grew up he used his wealth to restore Ishiteji.

There is a casket on the grounds that is said to contain the stone that the baby was born with. There is also an inscription on the grounds telling this story.

As we walked along farther into the temple grounds we found more and more statues dotted all over.

There was also this big brick shrine that had a large Kannon inside, but we couldn’t get closer because a spider had a large web stretching across the path to the shrine. But you can see a bit with this picture that Tye took with is fancy camera.

After that we walked around the temple grounds looking at all the different buildings and statues that are dotted all around.

One thing about these temple grounds is that there are thousands of statues all over the place. Some are of Buddha and Kannon, some are just people, some are scary and some are silly. But there are so many, it’s crazy! I loved looking at them all!

There was this shrine/altar that had this big statue of ((((((Kannon?))))))) it was surrounded by masks and smaller statues all around.

We ran into a couple people who were surprised to see foreigners at the temple. We talked with many people who wanted to know more about us and why we were visiting their neck of the woods. People around here are so nice and pleasant.

One strange thing that Tye and I noticed while we were traveling is that there was a strange thing that people did when we were talking to them. It’s strange, and a little sexist, but they were often surprised when I was the one who spoke Japanese and Tye wasn’t. When they started talking to us they would always start talking to Tye, and would continue to talk to Tye even after they realized that I was the one who could speak Japanese and that Tye could not. It was more obvious sometimes more than others, but it happened more than a few times that I started to notice it as a pattern. They expect foreign men to be able to speak Japanese more than foreign women. Speaking with these men here, it was probably the most obvious.

We went up to the main temple and it had beautiful displays of miscellaneous statues with a big golden Vajra statue on the steps out front.  Since the last time I wrote about this item (my post about my trip to Aomori back in December 2016 /January 2017) I have found out that this is a club or dagger that comes from India and it is meant to represent the indestructibility of a diamond. Monks and practitioners of Buddhism hold it to protect themselves, in most cases, from evil thoughts and spirits.

I went to one of the temples and bought an ema with a pretty picture of some of the temple buildings in the autumn.

Right across from the omamori building is a three-story pagoda, and at the base there are 88 bags full of dirt, one from each of the 88 temples of the Shikoku Pilgrimage.  They are laid out on two sides of the pagoda, so you can start at one end and touch each of the bags while walking around. On the other side there is a small altar to Kannon where you can pray.

Here are a few more buildings on the grounds.

But the real reason this place was amazing, the real reason it is different, the reason we came, is because it has a long cave under the ground. This cave is a long tunnel that stretches underneath the mountain behind the temple. Tehya and Derick warned us that the area have these creepy, awful centipedes that likes to lie in the caves, and to watch out for them, they are fast, but they won’t hurt you. I was less than enthused about going into the cave, one, for the centipedes, and two, for the newfound fact that I don’t like dark, underground caves/places full of statues. It seems to be oddly specific, but here we are.

  The entrance to the tunnel has dozens of statues leading up to the dark entrance. There is a sign before you enter that tells you to not panic while in the cave, and don’t push people or injure yourself or others if you do start to panic. It said it in the most amazing Engrish: “Calm the arrow that causes you to startle.” I grabbed a hold of Tye’s arm and we started walking through, it was mostly at my pace so I wouldn’t freak out like the day before under the Burmese temple.

Paraphrased: "Don't hurt yourself or others in your panic."

Final door to pass through before you are underground.

 This long tunnel has small baby-Jizo statues every three feet or so all the way through. This narrow tunnel has small, dim lanterns that light up a small area but the light does not reach ery far, and once you pass it, you can’t see much at all. Under the lights there were some wooden boards that had different words of encouragement and Buddhist teachings written on them. I could read parts of them, but not enough to really understand. 

The camera lies. The camera sees light that was not there.

Seriously, this photo is a lot brighter than in reality.

At different intervals in the tunnel there are big circular rooms that have been carved away, a half circle on both sides of the narrow path. These “rooms” are dark and scary. You cannot see anything, there is no light here. But the rooms are full of Buddha and Kannon statues as well as statues of monks. Some of them are creepy as fuck, some of them are normal, and there are even a few wooden ones that I don’t think are the Buddha at all. But combine that with the fact that there are dozens of them and it is pitch black, it makes it really scary and it was personally quite difficult for me to walk through.

Tye was using the flash on his camera to illuminate the dark rooms and de-mystify the area so I could gain some courage and walk through past all the creepy statues.  To help me not freak out I kept repeating the advice from the cave entrance like a mantra “Calm the arrow that causes you to startle.”

Here are some pictures from the first “room” of statues:

Here are some pictures from the second “room of statues”:

We finally made our way through and came out the other side of the hill. The entrance on this side was mostly blocked by a large bolder attached to the rocky cliff side. You gotta move past it, it’s not a large opening, and this is what it looks like from the other side.

We took a break on the other side for a while, we took some pictures and I mentally prepared myself to walk back through so we could get back to the temple grounds.

We looked across the street and saw an archway partially obscured by trees and bushes. Above the arch there was a large statue of a monk or noble man.  He had big, scary eyes. 

I was curious so I followed the path, it was short and it opened to a small courtyard with a large building shaped like an incense burner that I see at some Buddhist temples. In the center of the courtyard there was a stone path that lead to a door in the base of the building, and in the center of the path there was a statue of some hands cupped together, like you would if you were drinking some water from your hands. The hands were full of colorful marbles that were mostly green/blue so it looked like the hands were full of water. It was a really cool statue, in my humble opinion.

There were walkways around the outside of the courtyard, and these walkways were full of wooden statues of all different kinds of people. They were actually really cool, and I liked them a lot. 

At the end of one of the walkways there was a giant statue of an emaciated monk, it’s kinda creepy.

After we were done looking at this area, we walked back across the street to the tail-end of the caves and started walking through again. 
This time, Tye turned on the camera so others could see what we were experiencing. I uploaded it to YouTube, enjoy.

When we got back to where we came in, we saw a branch in the cave that lead to the right and not straight back the way we had come. This part of the cave had cinder blocks, plaster and wood lining the walls in places, and was not just bare cave wall. This one was even more narrow than the first. This one had alcoves and pictures lining the walls. 

We passed a monk statue that was inside a dark, dirty alcove, this one startled Tye which in turn startled me. We looked over and took a picture. It was kinda creepy and dirty and I didn’t like it. We took a picture and moved on. It wasn’t until later that night I looked at the pictures and saw that this statue has a red mark encircling its neck with what looks like red wax. The red wax also looks to be dripping from the “wound” down the front of his clothes. I am really glad I didn’t realize this at the time, or I might not have gone through with seeing the rest of the cave.

From the far end of the hallway looking back. 

The path turned a little bit and we emerged into a large room that was full of wooden statues floor to ceiling. Most of these were not Buddhas or Kannons as far as I could tell, but just people. The biggest statue though, was of Kannon and it was standing right in the middle of the room. It is like eight feet tall. We walked around the Kannon statue to the back of the room where there was a big metal divider that separated the room we were in from a room that had many Buddha statues in it.

We took some pictures, most of which didn’t turn out very good because the only light came from the room with the Buddhas behind the metal divider ,and it was not bright, just enough to see the outlines of the statues around you. 

This statue of a woman was near the ceiling and had big eyes, I thought it was pretty creepy.

Once we had our fill of the dark underground caves, we left and regrouped outside the entrance. We hadn’t seen any centipedes, and for that I was grateful.

The back entrance to the "branching" part of the cave.

The face of a woman who is happy to be out of that frightful place.

We took some last looks at the temple grounds and started walking through the main entrance to the temple. It is lined with some cute little shops. 

When you get near the main road there is a small udon restaurant. We decided to stop here and eat some lunch before continuing on. 

The entrance to the Temple near the road also had some pretty statues and a large gaijin trap that had a lot of water flowing through it.

We walked on for about ten minutes or so before we walked past a Shinto Shrine at the top of a loooooong stone staircase.

This shrine is called Isaniwa Jinja and it was quite pretty. There were pictures of chickens all over the place, and I think that’s because it is the year of the rooster.

I went to look at the ema display near the entrance and saw that there were paper ema hanging along with the wooden ones. Let me take a second and tell you the history of the ema.

Ema are wooden plaques that usually have a picture on one side and an empty space on the back side to write a prayer or wish on it. You can then hang them up at the shrine and periodically the priests will collect them and burn them in a ceremonial manner. I like to keep mine, though.

The practice started long ago when you wanted good fortune you could donate a horse to the shrine and you would get good fortune in return. Obviously, not everyone can afford a horse, so some people would carve a wooden horse statue/figure and donate that to the shrine instead. These would often be kept inside the shrines.

Over time, these statues evolved into the thin wooden plaque that you see today with a picture of a horse on it. “Ema” actually means “Picture of a horse.”

Over time different shrines would put different pictures on the plaque and today many shrines have their own pictures and decorations on their ema.

But this was something else, this was a piece of paper that you wrote your wish/prayer on one side and folded it in half, so the picture of the ema was on the outside. Is this the next step in the evolution of the ema? Maybe. Perhaps it is only this one shrine that has it, perhaps there are more. Perhaps it will gain in popularity. But it at least exists right here, right now. I am amazed!

We walked through the gate to the shrine itself. It is beautifully painted in bright colors and has some of the most imaginative colors for the dragons and komainu on the shrine’s cross beams. 

There were also small flower gardens inside small enclosures all around the shrine. You could walk the outer perimeter/walkway around the shrine, the gardens were on the interior of the walkway, and the shrine itself was in the middle of the space.

The top of the shrine around the back looked like it had yokai paintings and mythological figures painted/carved all around. It was a beautiful shrine! Gorgeous carving along the roof eaves and on the beams inside the walkway.

Along the walkway there was this interesting golden building model in a display case.

Along the perimeter of the shrine, there was a lot of old artwork. 

Included in the artwork was a statue of "St." Ippen, the founder of the Pure Land sect of Buddhism. This shows you just how close Shintoism and Buddhism were historically and are currently. Quite interesting if you ask me.

After we had finished we descended the big stone staircase and walked on. 

I love the change in hair color with caused by sun-bleach.

Just down the road we ran into another small Buddhist temple named Enman-ji. I wouldn’t have noticed it, but it was marked on Google Maps, so I was keeping my eyes peeled as we walked past. It was in a white building with some cloth Hinamatsuri mobiles hanging around. 

I saw a small ema stand and the building itself had a large entrance although I couldn’t see inside from the street.

As I approached I realized that inside the white building there was a large seated Buddha (monk?) statue with large eyes that looked like they were staring right at you if you were standing in the entrance.

It was painted in bright colors as well, and it was a neat find.

We continued on our path to our next destination: Dogo Onsen.

This is a large, old, beautiful onsen that is quite old. Its current building was built in 1894, but it is much older, and people have been using this hot spring for over 1000 years. It was used as the inspiration for the bath house in Spirited Away and it was a favorite spot of famous writer Natsume Soseki.

There were many jinrikusha driers waiting for tourists to buy a riskshaw ride. There is also the entrance to a shopping center and restaurants all around Dogo onsen. And in a picnic table place nearby there are plastic statues of people all around looking like they are laughing and having fun.

This area, even though the city was clearly visible all around, had the feel of a small, traditional town, and I am not just talking about the appearance of the building itself. There are many people who were walking around and relaxing in yukata after their baths. The whole area gives of just a nice, relaxed vibe, I love it there!

On one side of the onsen there is a large rock with some water coming out of a pipe nearby where it is filling a barrel. The rock is enclosed within a gate and there are ladles with really long handles. You can use the ladles to pour water from the barrel on top of the rock. You can then say a little prayer for good health. I prayed that my headaches would finally go away and not return, but that has not happened.

We walked around the corner and down the street a short ways to a hotel that has a footbath and small restaurant where you can sit outside in a little garden, out of the sun and enjoy a lovely time soaking your feet and eating little snacks from the restaurant.

Tye and I ordered their tea and dango special. The restaurant also will give you a little towel to dry your feet off when you get out. It was such a nice atmosphere, and so much fun! The dango was really tasty as well!

So cute!!

Sadly you can’t find this footbath or restaurant on Google Maps, but it is in the side entrance to a hotel. It is not obvious, as the garden and footbath are hidden behind some hedges. The only reason we knew where it was was because Tehya told us and helped us find it when we got lost.

When we were done we walked back to Dogo onsen and were going to start walking back to Tehya’s house, but Tye saw a little pub right next to the onsen and wanted to stop and grab a beer before we left.

The bar was nice and had a nice atmosphere. The waiter was really nice to us and spoke a bit of English. We each ordered a beer and talked for a short while before we had to get moving again so we could meet Tehya and Derick for dinner.

We walked the twenty minutes back and talked about how wonderful this city is. I would definitely come back to Japan, and I would love to live in Matsuyama.

We met up with Tehya and Derek and we walked back to the Okaido shopping district. This time we walked right past the Flying Scotsman and continued walking to this restaurant called Hanbei’s. It is a cute little izakaya (Japanese pub that sells small plates of a wide variety of foods) that has a 1940’s/1950’s wartime theme. The walls are covered in old-timey advertisements and a small amount of wartime propaganda. And the restaurant was playing some old 1940’s Japanese music. The atmosphere is amazing! You should totally go if you find yourself in the area.

The menu had so many things on it that I wanted to try. There were delicious chips and meats to try. I split a set of frog legs with Derek, and they were quite good. They tasted like chicken, but in a weird way the meat was almost… slimy? It wasn’t going bad or anything, I just feel like that is the best way to describe the texture of the meat. Still really tasty!

We tried a whole bunch of different dishes such as gyoza and fried calamari, chicken necks and and we finished the evening with a little bowl of ice cream. When you go there, women will get a free ice cream, but no free ice cream for men though. As shown in this menu.

The menu was even pretty funny! It had a whole host of funny Engrish, phrases and descriptions all over the menu. I took a few photos of it.

After we had eaten our fill and tried many new things, we walked back to Tehya and Derek’s house. I freaking love them. Tehya is so much fun to be around and the pair of them are so nice! I really hope I can be friends with them for a long time to come.