4/12/08 Tokyo to Matsuyama

I woke up and got ready and took the subway to Tokyo station. I got there pretty early to allow myself extra time. Up until yesterday I pretty much relied on Kuniko to get around (and more importantly relied on her to find great restaurants and read the menu for me!). It really hasn’t been that difficult to get around with essentially no Japanese skills- as for finding restaurants and sorting out the menu- that may be another story. I had plenty of time in the station so I grabbed breakfast and a bento box to bring on the train for lunch. Again I will dismiss the “Japan is SO expensive” myth. For about 6 bucks I got rice, miso soup, a small piece of cooked salmon, a soft boiled egg, and a coffee. For about 9 bucks I got a bento box that had rice, shredded beef, and a few other things that I don’t know what they were but they were good. Both the cheap breakfast and bento box were very tasty.

I am typing this on the bullet train. I have a 4 hour ride to Okayama where I change trains and then have about a 2 and a half hour ride to Matsuyama. For the first of the 2 trains they only had a reserved seat in a smoking car, however, I headed to the non-reserved seat and found a seat in a non-smoking car- thank god. I sat down next to this little old Japanese lady who proceeded to have a conversation in Japanese with me despite that fact that I pulled out my lonely planet and found the conversation section and showed her the phrase that said “I don’t speak Japanese”….it was really quite amusing. I then got to Okayama and had a few minutes to grab a coffee and a snack for the next train ride. I knew I wanted a rice ball- which is basically rice with nori (seaweed- used with sushi) with something inside of it. There were probably 20 different kinds and nothing in English- I knew that umeboshi would be a sure bet so I asked a Japanese girl also shopping for a rice ball which one was umeboshi and she pointed them out.

The train ride from Okayama to Matsuyma is visually stunning. Initially you cross a bridge and on both sides of the train you can see lots of small islands. As you get further along the train rides along the coast- to the right of the train you can see the ocean and to the left you can see the mountains- it is really impressive.

Matsuyama is famous for the Dogo onsen- one of Japan's oldest and most famous onsen (hot springs) dating back 1500 years. I headed to it after checking into my hostel. It was super relaxing and I had 2 "conversations" with a couple of Japanese guys- mostly about baseball.

I headed back to the hostel and started chatting with an Aussie and he invited be to dinner with his friend. They had gone to a Gyoza place the previous night and we headed back there- it was really good. We then then headed to an OK sushi place- the tuna and snapper sushi were very good.