Golden Week

So I guess there was more to the trip than the food. I just haven't been too motivated to write lately. This first picture is the beach where I met up with the guys after my solo train ride. It was a pretty beach, but there were a lot of people, and there was no swimming. The pine tree/ocean combination was nice, though.

This beach is one we found the next day on our way to another part of the island. It wasn't particularly beautiful, but we spent a lot of time there watching all the surfers.
This lighthouse it at the southernmost point of the island. Kind of a plain lighthouse.


These pics are from one of the 88 temples that people make pilgrimages to on the island. We saw these pilgrims everywhere we went. I think it takes about 3 months for someone to walk to all of them.




I know this is another food picture, but it was one of the best meals we had. We didn't get to this area until pretty late, so we bought groceries and barbequed on the beach. Very pleasant.

And after dinner, we played with sparklers.

And this is the view we would have had if we would have eaten when it was light.


This was the view from a short hike we did.


I unfortunately didn't get pictures of my favorite day. We had a lot of driving to do through a river gorge to get to the next destination. We all kind of decided we were tired of driving, so we decided to f ind a place that rented boats. We found a small shop that rented kayaks, so we spent a few hours in the middle of the day kayaking down a beautiful river. I didn't want to take my camera given the fact that we couldn't really tell how rough it would be (it wasn't at all) so I didn't take any pictures. I am kicking myself now.

This was one of our last stops on the trip. The town was Matsuyama, and it is famous for it's onsen (hot springs for bathing). This building was used by a famous samurai back in the day (I can't remember his name).

We decided to go up to Matsuyama castle, and found that we could take a chairlift!

Needless to say, we didn't enter these gates, so we never found out what it was. We were curious if the Japanese really translated into the same thing.

Shikoku: Post-trip

I made it to Shikoku and back. I did have to stand for about 5 hours on the trains to get down there, but I made it. And was it worth it!
Even if just for the food. I never thought I would eat such strange things, but I expanded my horizons:
This first picture is pigs' tail. That's right, TAIL. I did not eat this, but watched my travel partners eat it. It looked innocent enough, until you could start to see the vertebral segments under the meat and fat. I did try some intestine (unknowingly) and tongue- which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But that's about all I could handle. Actually I'm starting to make myself sick thinking about it. The owners of the restaurant were really nice, though. I think they were happy we tried all of these things.

Next:
This one is jellyfish. I had no idea what to expect, but when I ate it, it seemed to make sense. It was kind of crunchy with a membranous texture. Sounds good, huh? At this meal, I also had chicken wings stuffed with gyoza, but I don't have a picture.
Finally, we made it to Takamatsu- a city famous for it's fresh-as-can-be seafood. By "fresh-as-can-be", I mean still moving. I read something about octopi in restaurants that were kept in tanks and occasionally taken out to get a few tentacles chopped off for the customer. Just so the customer could feel the sensation of movement on his tongue. I didn't really want to try this sushi that still moves, but the boys I was with did, so we stopped by a restaurant that had a few fish tanks. You went and picked out a fish that looks good to you:
This is the one that had to give its life for us. You can't see it, but it is flopping around wildly in the pan. We didn't actually see the preparation (thankfully), but they cut the sashimi right off the fish while it's still alive. Then they put it all on a plate for you to eat.

Apparently, it's probable that the fish is still alive at this point. One of the guys had eaten the same thing before, and after about 10 minutes of it being on the table, the fish started moving it's tail. Because he told us this, we all stopped talking when it was served to us and watched for it to move. It never moved and I am pretty sure it was dead, but still, I think this was about the most cruel I have ever been to an animal. What's worse than eating parts of an animal while it is skewered and still watching you? It was pretty bad. Actually, just writing this makes me feel a lot worse. There was more to this trip, but I will have to write more when I'm feeling better about myself.

Shikoku

In a semi-last minute decision, I am going to Shikoku for Golden Week (our 5-day holiday). This means I have to brave the trains, which almost every other Japanese resident might be taking at the same time. Wish me luck.