Wednesday, March 30th: Shikoku and Takematsu
Today is busy. Museums, gardens and lots of walking. We start on the train - about a 1 hour ride to Takamatsu across the inland sea. It's kind of scary to look out the window and down and see sea!
We started a little slow, missing the first bus to the wax museum Scott wanted to visit. We spent a few minutes in a local supermarket - much more like the markets at home, and much better priced than the FoodShow. We made it to the museum just before a large pack of Japanese tourists, all older (and shorter). We ended up running through the museum in the middle of the pack, which in general was fine except when Scott wanted to take pictures. We ended up hanging back after a bit and then ran into the swarm in the gift shop. We had to museum operator call us a cab and rode the three kms to the park in relative peace.
This park is huge. There is a lot more to do in this park and more is in bloom. We had a simple tea service, our first ever macha (powdered green tea). We knelt on heated floor pads, how civilized. Koi - the biggest noisiest koi I've ever seen are in this park. Took lots of pictures of kids feeding the fish - I swear if these fish actually tasted good they'd be for sale in the big fish markets they are so large.
After the park we took a local private train line, not the JR run system, to a small town Yashima to see the Japanese version of Wheald and Downland (my spelling sucks). This is a site that has collected over 20 structures, houses mostly, from all over the inland sea islands as a collection of historic buildings. There were several fascinating structures, and lots and LOTS of steps to climb up and down the mountain side. We bumped into a Brit about halfway through the site, he mentioned that he'd seen up in the park earlier and commented that we must be using the same guidebooks. We laughed and let it slide. We ended the tour in the Victorian house on the site and had a spot of tea and sandwiches. The fellow showed up shortly after us. We exchanged pleasantries and moved on again, back down to the train. The fellow showed up again so we introduced ourselves. His name is Peter and he's from Essex. We talked almost all the way back to the main train station. He told us about a seafood restaurant off the main shopping arcade that has a large tank in the center where you can select what you want to eat while it's still swimming. Scott's shrimp was still twitching - it was very good.
We started a little slow, missing the first bus to the wax museum Scott wanted to visit. We spent a few minutes in a local supermarket - much more like the markets at home, and much better priced than the FoodShow. We made it to the museum just before a large pack of Japanese tourists, all older (and shorter). We ended up running through the museum in the middle of the pack, which in general was fine except when Scott wanted to take pictures. We ended up hanging back after a bit and then ran into the swarm in the gift shop. We had to museum operator call us a cab and rode the three kms to the park in relative peace.
This park is huge. There is a lot more to do in this park and more is in bloom. We had a simple tea service, our first ever macha (powdered green tea). We knelt on heated floor pads, how civilized. Koi - the biggest noisiest koi I've ever seen are in this park. Took lots of pictures of kids feeding the fish - I swear if these fish actually tasted good they'd be for sale in the big fish markets they are so large.
After the park we took a local private train line, not the JR run system, to a small town Yashima to see the Japanese version of Wheald and Downland (my spelling sucks). This is a site that has collected over 20 structures, houses mostly, from all over the inland sea islands as a collection of historic buildings. There were several fascinating structures, and lots and LOTS of steps to climb up and down the mountain side. We bumped into a Brit about halfway through the site, he mentioned that he'd seen up in the park earlier and commented that we must be using the same guidebooks. We laughed and let it slide. We ended the tour in the Victorian house on the site and had a spot of tea and sandwiches. The fellow showed up shortly after us. We exchanged pleasantries and moved on again, back down to the train. The fellow showed up again so we introduced ourselves. His name is Peter and he's from Essex. We talked almost all the way back to the main train station. He told us about a seafood restaurant off the main shopping arcade that has a large tank in the center where you can select what you want to eat while it's still swimming. Scott's shrimp was still twitching - it was very good.
