We arrived in Matsuyama on a very short plane ride over the Sea of Japan from Busan
A confusing bus ride, coupled with urgent communications back home with my sister whom Phoebe had tasked to buy tickets to Black Pink’s UK tour meant the journey to our accommodation was slightly stressful so we were pleased to find the most loveliest Japanese lady host, a comfy house and a washing machine.
Japan is the chapter we have all been excited about! Matsuyama is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, in Japan and is also Shikoku’s largest city. We ended up here randomly as we found a cheap flight from Busan and we always like to explore a place with no expectations or plans. We found some of the things we had expected from Japan – vending machines, claw machines and funny little cars!
We visited Matsuyama Castle, which was was built in the early 17th century on Mt. Katsuyama. It is one of twelve Japanese castles to have an original keep built before the end of the Edo period (1603–1867). We spotted some early blossom (the cherry blossom season starts in the next month) and the girls imagined themselves as samurai. The journey to the castle was a fun one, Phoebe opted for the chair lift which was slightly terrifying (to me!) and Sophie for the more sensible cable car experience.
Sophie had her second visit from the tooth fairy! The globe trotting fairy found us again after the first visit in Taiwan.
From Matsuyama we took a tram and ferry over to Hiroshima on Honshu Island. Hiroshima is known as the first city in the world to be struck by an atomic bomb which led to the end of WW2. We visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, built in remembrance of the victims of the nuclear bomb. This and the museum were both an extremely moving and interesting experience.
The A-Bomb dome has been preserved in the same state as immediately after the bombing as a powerful symbol of the most destructive force ever created by humankind. The flame of peace burns in protest of nuclear weapons and will continue to burn until there are no nuclear weapons left on earth. In the Peace Memorial Park we saw brightly coloured paper cranes everywhere, which are from the ancient Japanese tradition of origami, but today they are known as a symbol of peace. This connection between paper cranes and peace can be traced back to a young girl named Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia ten years after the atomic bombing. Nowadays around 10 million cranes each year are made around the world and sent to Hiroshima.
In the city we discovered the discount store Don Quijote (aka Donki) which quickly became our favourite shopping spot for unusual snacks including Kitkats in all of the flavours we don’t get at home. I had expected Japan to be expensive but it is actually easy to eat pretty cheaply if you stick to convenience stores, with our faves Family Mart and 7-Eleven being joined by Lawsons. They all sell variations on the same things and similar to what we lived on in Taiwan. Our repeat buys include egg sandwiches, sushi triangles and corn dogs!
Next stop… a bullet train to Osaka!
4 responses
A once in a lifetime experience (possibly?) (for some?) and what a history lesson, nting like wat I ad at school.
Yes it was a great learning experience and very interesting.
How mant teeth has Sophie got left? Can tooth fairies go bankrupt?
Still plenty left to bankrupt the fairy!