Kicking the bucket...list: Day 24 - Completing the circle in Shikoku

 

The view from Marugame Castle 

Day 24 would be my final day on the island of Shikoku 四国, during which much like the pilgrim completing the circle by traveling from Temple 88 back to Temple 1 (note that the pilgrimage doesn't actually have to be done in this order), I would close the loop on the smallest of Japan's four main islands by returning to Takamatsu 高松, the starting point of this Japanese travel-related bucket list journey.

The day began with my waking up at Kaze no Kuguru 風のくぐる in Zentsūji 善通寺市. As meals weren't included in the rates, these were the morning scenes on the way to breakfast at a nearby McDonald's:

The friendly proprietor of Kaze no Kuguru. Should you ever find yourself in need of accommodations in Zentsuji and don't require five-star hotel amenities, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a stay here:

Zentsū-ji 善通寺 is Temple 75 of the 88, and is the largest of them all. The great monk Kūkai 空海 (posthumously known as Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師) was born in its precincts in 774 (so you know the temple has some serious history behind it), and the giant camphor trees there are said to go back at least as far as the saint's childhood. I spent time exploring the grounds, including the Hondō 本堂:

The five-story pagoda ご重大塔 was another highlight to admire: 

Peeking inside Kanchi-in 頭観智院, one of the sub-temples on the grounds of Zentsu-ji. It was established by Kobo Daishi in 807, though the present building is a 1925 construction:

The highlight for me was the Mie-dō 御影堂. For ¥500 ($3.40) I was allowed to slowly feel my way along a pitch-black underground passage (not easy for one prone to claustrophobia as I am), eventually reaching an altar marking where Kukai was born. By doing so I was now safely following Buddha's way: 

While at the temple I was pleased to find a vending machine selling a yogurt soda called Yōgurun ヨーグルンソーダ. I'd first seen the drink in a machine outside Tokushima Station 徳島駅, and being a fan of similar quaffs such as Calpis カルピス and Skäl スコール was eager to try it, but it was sold out there. I'd been on the lookout for it since, and the Daishi finally answered my prayers. And all was good, including the taste: 

 

While enjoying the milky yogurt sensation I noticed that Los Angeles Dodgers superstar and two-way sensation Shōhei Ohtani 大谷翔平 was promoting Itōen Green Tea 伊藤園お茶. His green tea, his soul: 

I had assumed that Zentsu-ji would be the last of the pilgrimage temples I would be visiting on this trip, but it turned out that assumption was mistaken. I was making good time that morning, and temple 73 Shusshaka-ji 出釈迦寺 was only nine minutes away by car, so I decided to make one more stop before leaving Zentsuji (the city). The temple once stood 500 meters/1640 feet above the plain on a steep mountain, but was relocated to the valley below around 200 years ago to make it more accessible to pilgrims. Legend has it that Kobo Daishi threw himself off the peak at the tender age of just seven, asking the Buddha to save him if it was going to be his destiny to save others. Apparently it was: 

And with that, I was finished with the pilgrimage, having visited 14 of the 88 temples. There had been a time when I thought of doing the full pilgrimage on foot (and I would see many henro 遍路 doing just that during my trip around Shikoku, including a few fellow gaijin 外人) but reality eventually prevailed. I elected not to go full henro when visiting the temples, but I did make sure to offer a simple prayer at each main hall (and often at the adjoing Daishi Halls 大師堂 as well) expressing my gratitude at still being able to get around.

From Shusshaka-ji it was around a 20-minute drive to what would be my final destination in Shikoku, Marugame-jō 丸亀城. This castle, completed in 1597 after five years of construction, might be small (and is the smallest in Shikoku), but it's one of only a dozen in Japan to have its original wooden donjon still standing. Getting to it involved a ten-minute walk up a steep slope (not very enjoyable in the hot weather), but the views looking out over the city and the Inland Sea 瀬戸内海 were worth the effort: 

It really wasn't worth going inside, though, as there wasn't much to see in the interior of the three-story structure:

The Great Seto Bridge 瀬戸大橋 could be seen in the distance. I would be crossing it on a train that afternoon: 

While there I met Donald, a friendly fellow originally from the Philippines who was now living in Marugame 丸亀市. He was on his way to a local pool after the castle, an excellent idea on this blisteringly hot day: 

I, however, had other things to do. Following a quick lunch at a local MOS Burger モスバーガー I drove on to Takamatsu, where I returned my rented Toyoto Corolla. My trusty aluminum and steel steed had taken me around the island for the past 17 days or so without any issues, a fact for which I was very grateful: 

Not long after dropping off the vehicle, I found myself again on the Marine Liner マリンライナー. Twenty-one days earlier I'd taken the train from Okayama Station 岡山駅 to Takamatsu Station 高松駅. Now I was making the return journey: 

A last look at Shikoku as the train was making its way:

Crossing the Seto Ōhashi Bridge:

At Okayama I changed to the bullet train 新幹線 for the short (fewer than twenty minutes) ride to Himeji Station 姫路駅. The view of Himeji Castle 姫路城 as seen when exiting the station's East Exit 東口:

Walking through the Miyuki Street Shopping Center みゆき通り商店街 next to my hotel:

The view from my room on the 13th floor of the Daiwa Roynet Hotel Himeji ダイワロイネットホテル姫路: 

For dinner that evening I found myself at Kaitenzushi Rikimaru 回転寿司力丸, a local conveyor-belt sushi chain where I ordered a lot more than what's shown in the photo:

By the time I finished gorging myself all the souvenir stores around the station were closed so I wasn't able to purchase any local craft beer. Google directed me to a liquor store in the red-light district:

The night view from my hotel room...:

...where I enjoyed my purchase. It wasn't from Himeji but it was still 地ビール: 

Through 35 years and numerous trips I had managed to cover virtually the whole of Japan, ranging from the snowy climes of Hokkaidō 北海道 down to white sand beaches of Okinawa 沖縄, with stops in 44 of the country's 47 prefectures. But until this moment I had only made tentative forays into Shikoku: in 1990 I spent a night in Kotohira 琴平 in Kagawa-ken 香川県 for the purpose of visiting Konpira-san 金刀比羅宮 while traveling between Kyōto 京都 and Hiroshima 広島; in 1997 when I made a day trip by train from Okayama via the Seto Ohashi to the city of Sakaide 坂出, a depressing sight as many of the businesses close to the train station there were shuttered; and another day trip in the spring of 2012 when I pedaled a rented bicycle from Ikuchi Island 生口島 (part of Onomichi City 尾道市 on the island of Honshū 本州) to Ōmishima Island 大三島, which falls under the jurisdiction of Imabari 今治市 in Ehime-ken 愛媛県. 

Thanks to having access to a rented car (and to my supervisor for allowing me to take all that time off from work), I was able to visit all four prefectures on the island (Tokushima 徳島県, Kagawa, Ehime and Kōchi 高知県) over a period of three weeks, spending time in each of the prefectural capitals, and bumping my prefecture total up to 46 after exploring Tokushima and Kochi*. Of the four main islands of the Japanese archipelago, Shikoku has earned the not-always-inaccurate reputation of being something of a backwater. But it's a region well worth the effort to visit, with engaging cities and attractive scenery ranging from its mist-covered mountains down to its rugged coastlines. And of course there's that spiritual element to it. Japan has many regional pilgrimages, but nowhere else in the country can compare to the 88 temples forming a circular route around Shikoku.

Ideally I would've visited the four prefectures on four different trips, but those of you who have been following these blog posts would probably agree that it didn't feel as if I was rushing around during those recent twenty-one days ("If it's Tuesday I must be in Kochi!"). 

So that was Shikoku. But this most recent excursion to Japan wasn't over just yet. Don't change that channel as there are still at least two more posts to go before this series wraps up and I can begin regaling you with tales from old Canton. 

*The one remaining prefecture on the J-Bucket List™ is Ibaraki 茨城県, located between 30 and 150 kilometers (19 and 93 miles, respectively) north of the city center of Tōkyō 東京. While I've passed through it many times on trains, I've never stepped foot on its soil (perhaps for good reason, as Ibaraki is consistently ranked by the Japanese themselves as the least attractive prefecture). That oversight will hopefully be addressed before the end of this current tour in Guangzhou 广州. 

Kicking the bucket...list: Day 23 Stripping down in Shikoku

 

The Inland Sea

I'm going to start this post off with a disclaimer - Day Number 23 of my most recent trip to Japan (June-July of this year) was the least interesting (arrival and departure dates excepted) of what was overall one of the most fulfilling journeys I've ever undertaken. The reasons why will become clear as you follow along, but I won't take any offense should you choose to look at something else on the Internet. I can promise, however, that the remaining entries in this series (and we're almost near the end) will be far more interesting. And with that out of the way, what follows is a brief look as my made my way by car from Matsuyama 松山 to Zentsūji 善通寺市. 

Sunrise over Matsuyama Castle 松山城 at 0530 hours. Of the four main cities on the island of Shikoku 四国 (the others being Takamatsu 高松, Kōchi 高知 and Tokushima 徳島), Matsuyama 松山 is probably the one where I would be most comfortable settling down. The largest city on the island with a population of almost 510,000, Matsuyama has a certain retro charm despite its modern-day accouterments. Other than the castle and Dōgo Onsen 道後温泉, there aren't a lot of must-see sights, but the city is a good base for day trips, and comes across as a very liveable environment, one with most mod cons - I have a couple of friends who have spent time there and waxed positive on its atmosphere. It certainly doesn't hurt that Matsuyama is a sister city of the closest place in the U.S. to what I consider to be a hometown, Sacramento, California: 

It was, however, time to leave Matsuyama and move on. Much of the day was spent behind the wheel as my route paralled the sea in many places. I stopped at one abandoned building with a small private beach to admire the view: 

An abandoned scooter:

The only deviation from the route taken that day would be to the Chikamiyama Observatory 近見山展望台 in Imabari 今治. The drive up was on the narrowest road I would tackle on this trip. The absence of concave mirrors meant that when approaching many curves it was necessary to honk to alert any approaching vehicles of my presence - fortunately I didn't encounter any on that weekday morning. I ended up parking at a toilet stop and walking up instead of driving further uphill to a parking lot:

The view from the parking lot took in the Kurushima Kaikyō Bridges 来島海峡大橋, which make up one end of the Shimanami Kaidō Cycling Road しまなみ海道サイクリングロード, with the other being the city of Onomichi 尾道 located on the opposite side of the Seto Inland Sea 瀬戸内海:

Speaking of Imabari*, I had actually visited the city way back in the summer of 1990, traveling there by train from Kotohira 琴平, and only staying long enough to catch a now-discontinued ferry to Hiroshima 広島 . The ferry terminal was the site of where I would have one of my worst meals ever in Japan, in the form of a bowl of rice topped with vegetables that included a weird tuber that I mistook at first for an actual slug, and which tasted like one. Things greatly improved 35 years later when I stopped for a karaage から揚げ set lunch at the Road Side Station Imabari Yunoura Onsen 道の駅今治湯ノ浦温泉:

Having a chat with my friend Steve in Taiwan before getting back on the road: 

The remainder of the drive that day would be through the Japan that most foreign tourists are spared from seeing. Though the ocean scenery from the Roadside Station Toyohama 駅の道とよはま was pleasant enough, most of the three-hour drive was a dreary slog through an endless string of strip malls, industrial complexes, heavy trucks and stop lights (granted, that was largely due to my avoidance of having to pay expressway tolls). It was also unfortunate that this would be the first day of an unseasonal heat wave where the temperature rose above 30°C/86°F: 

Taiwanese restaurants are a not uncommon sight in Japan:

The Kaze no Kuguru 風のくぐる guesthouse in Zentsuji was a welcoming sight at the end of the day. The owner was friendly, my room basic but clean and there was even free use of a washer and dryer, making the hotel great value for the pilgrim 遍路. It's located on a main road about 2 kilometers/1.2 miles from Zentsū-ji 善通寺, Temple 75 on the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage 四国遍路, and the landmark that gives the city is name and claim to fame: 

For dinner I walked about 12 mintues to the local branch of the family restaurant chain Gusto ガスト, where I had the shrimp gratin set, plus a Crème brûlée for dessert. And a beer, as I was finished that day with operating a motor vehicle: 

Sunset as seen while walking back to Kaze no Kuguru:

The next day would be my last on Shikoku. I hope you'll still be with me as I visit not one but two temples on the pilgrimage, as well as one of Japan's dozen original castles, before returning with my rental car to Takamatsu, where it all started 17 days previously. 

*A link to an article on Imabari making a silk purse out of sow's ear. The writer would later acknowledge on Facebook that while there's a bit to see there, it isn't enough to call Imabari a standalone destination.