I am sorry that this one has taken so long to get out. Due to an unstable internet connection meaning that I lost about half of this post and an incoming typhoon meaning I have had to change some plans around and move my schedule up too. I am also doing this for the third time due to some corrupted files in the original. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
Monday 7th July – Moving Day Again
So, this time with moving from Hiroshima to Matsue I had to take a 40 min Shinkansen (bullet train) and then an almost 2 hour and 40 mins limited express train which took me through the heart of Japan (literally from coast to coast).
The train was quite long and had a very peculiar driver’s cab. I am glad though that I paid the extra money for a green car pass as the seating is much nicer.
The hotel I am staying in is called the ‘Green Rich Hotel Matsue – Station Across’ and yes that is literally what it means, I am like 50 metres from the Matsue station entrance. It also has a onsen inside for hotel guests which I was happy about and have spent every night at. All in all, I spent about £150 for 3 nights at this hotel.
As it was getting late, I was wondering where to go to get something to eat so I was looking at a Bistro about 20 mins from the hotel, but instead I happened to come across this place.
This place is an Izakaya which the best way I can describe it that it is a Japanese pub. When inside this izakaya there are booths that you can go into if you are a party of people, so you get some privacy, but if you are alone like me then you tend to get seated at the front near the kitchen.
When I first got seated and started using my chopsticks there was this older guy sat 2 seats from me starting to laugh, including when I was using my phone to translate the menu. Unfortunately, I am bad with names so I can’t remember his name (sorry), but after a little while we got talking to each other using both a little bit of Japanese, English and google translate. After a while a lovely woman came in and joined us and all 3 of us started talking and got to know each other. We even brought each other some food and drinks (yes, I did try some cold sake and yes, I do much prefer it warm). Instead of getting some food and drink from 6:30PM till about 7-7:30PM, I ended up staying in there till about 9PM.
I won’t bore you with the detail too much, but I also meet someone for Hiroshima the next night who wants to travel the world.
Thursday 8th August – Matsue Castle
Today was the day I am going to my first proper castle that dates all the way back to the 16th century and is one of only 12 castles dating back all that way that are still standing.
Firstly, I had a look around the castle grounds before making my way the keep. First stop was the south lookout tower which also has a drum in it which was used to sound the alarm and was used to issue commands.
Next was the Central tower which was apparent used for weapon storage and was also used to overlook part of the town to see if there were any invaders coming.
On the way up to the castle there was a Shinto shrine which wasn’t uncommon for this kind of structure and there was also a small shrine next to it as well. The small shrine is dedicated to Inari the Japanese kami of Foxes, fertility, rice, tea, sake, agriculture, general prosperity and in the earlier days was the kami of swordsmiths as well. Inari has foxes that act as messengers which you can see in the picture below as guardians of the shrine.
Next, I started to head up to the castle which cost 500 yen. This castle has a good structure and has a stone wall part way up it and then wooded structure and it served many a lord. This castle at one point fell into a state of disrepair as it was so old and the wooden structure of the building wasn’t doing so well after a good long while so in the 1950’s it was underwent a major restoration project that got it to where it is now.
The inside of the castle is now a museum which gives a lot of information off about the history of it, what each floor was used for and where each of the defences are inside the structure (stone throwing doors, arrow slits and gun slits.
Now the structure has 5 floors and a basement which are all connected and held up by massive wooden beams, but there beams don’t hold all the floors in place, so the basement beam would go up to the 2nd floor and beams from the 2nd floor would go up to the 4th and 3rd to 5th and so on and so forth. This made the structure quite strong and meant that they could make each of the floors different to each other.
The top floor of the castle has an amazing view all over Matsue and I was able to get some good panoramic photos from all around. There is also a document on the top floor stating that Matsue castle is a national treasure.
Friday 9th August – Sakaiminato
Now this is one of the days where I got up late, mainly with the amount of stuff I am doing it is absolutely knackering me out, so it was a nice easy day, but that didn’t stop me from catching the 1 hour and 30 mins train journey from Matsue to Sakaiminato. Sakaiminato is famous in Japan for the creator (Mizuki Shigeru) of a famous anime called ‘GeGeGe no Kitaro’. He even has a road named after him and along the road are about 177 statues of different Yokai (spiritual monsters) and the hero of the anime (Kitaro) as well.
After this I decided it would be a good idea to rent out a bicycle and then go to the famous bridge connecting Sakaiminato and Matsue together. This is the infamous Eshima Ohashi Bridge which is classed as one of the scariest bridges in Japan. Why is it supposedly scary you might ask, well it is because of how steep it is and the fact that it is not a straight bridge either. The bridge was also featured in an Automotive advert (which you can see in one of my previous posts) about not needing to floor it up the bridge in that car because of how steep it is. I can confirm that as the cars was whizzing past me with rev counters high as I was walking up one side of the bridge with the bike.
The bridge is 45 meters tall at the highest point so ships can go under it as it connected Miho Bay to Lake Nakaumi.
Once I got down the other side with the help of gravity. I decided it would be a good time to stop and have a well-deserved break at a local convenience store, especially as it was hot out.
After this it was starting to get late so it was time to start looking at making my way back to the station to drop the bike off and get on the long train journey back to Matsue as tomorrow I would be moving to Osaka.
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