Japan (2019)

Shikoku – Out in the countryside

Continuing our journey, we boarded the ferry to Tokushima on Shikoku Island, the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. The special thing about Shikoku is the nature. The landscape here is often referred to as the Japanese jungle. There is also a well-known pilgrimage route via Shikoku. We were hoping to experience a different, more rural Japan here and in fact we were not disappointed.

The ferry itself was the first highlight. There were many little things here that you can probably call “typically Japan” with a smile. So you could see large pictures of anime girls in several places. In addition to the drinks vending machines that are very common all over Japan, there was also a vending machine where you could draw noodle soups, which Kevin happily took advantage of. Even gaming machines, which showed a problematic side of Japan, were represented here. There was also a small kiosk for bentos and cigarettes. The journey itself took about 2 hours and we spent most of our time exploring the ferry and stretching our legs.

Myoshi – Hip locals and giggling school girls

From Tokushima we took the train deeper into the interior of the island to Awa Ikeda station in Myoshi. Here we had booked a traditional small room in an AirBnB. The owners were a group of young people who grew up in Myoshi and who made it their goal to make the place “cool” again. In addition to the Heso Camp, where our accommodation was located, they also run a hostel and a hip restaurant, the Heso Salon. The Heso Salon could certainly also be located in Berlin Kreuzberg and would fit in there without any problems. Cool music echoed from speakers, there was craft beer, cocktails and coffee in addition to local dishes and in the entrance area there were items related to Myoshi, such as T-shirts with the name of the place.

Our first way led us directly to the Heso Salon, where we got our keys and where the friendly waiter went out of his way to explain the way to our accommodation in English. This worked out better than expected, because we found it straight away and quickly unloaded our things before we returned to the Heso Salon and had lunch. Kevin ordered his beloved Japanese curry while I tried a local specialty: Iya-Soba. Soba is generally quite widespread in Japan. This is usually a soup made with soba noodles. These are noodles that are made from buckwheat and are therefore very digestible. Iya-Soba, the local variant, can be enjoyed warm or cold (I chose the warm variant) and it is characterized by the fact that limes are added, which gives the soup a pleasant freshness. In retrospect, it is difficult to say what was the most delicious thing we ate in Japan, as Japanese cuisine is so incredibly varied and delicious, but Iya-Soba is definitely at one of the top positions.

Well strengthened, we set out to explore the village. Miyoshi is a small sleepy town surrounded by fields and picturesque landscapes. There were a few smaller shops, but also a few shops that appeared to be closed. The rural exodus was clearly noticeable here. In contrast to our previous stations, foreigners like us were apparently a special sight here. School children started giggling as they passed us and once a girl leaned over to her friend and said enthusiastically with one hand over her mouth: “Kawai”, which means “cute”. Later a lady spoke to us and was quite ashamed when she realized that she had obviously mistaken us. A few meters further we also saw how this mix-up came about. A European-looking woman was talking to a few people in front of a school. Probably the lady who had spoken to us thought that we belonged to her, since there were apparently no other foreigners here. A little further there was a small shrine that we visited on occasion.

Since we wanted to visit the Iya Valley the next day, we made another detour to the train station to find out how we could best get there. To our amazement, there was a JR Rail Pass Exchange Office at the station. As already mentioned, the JR Rail Pass is only for foreigners and is usually redeemed directly upon arrival, i.e. mostly at the airport. It was already strange that there was such an office here in the middle of Shikoku at the train station. Assuming that the employees of an office for foreigners probably speak English, we headed for the Exchange Office. On the one hand, the lady there was surprised to have customers and, on the other hand, she was overwhelmed because she didn’t speak a single word of English. Finally she indicated with hands and feet that there was some kind of tourist information office across the street where we could be helped before she sent us out again. In the tourist information office, one of the ladies actually spoke a few bits of English and we finally got the information we needed for the next day. Nevertheless, we are still confused about this Exchange Office in a place that is virtually nobody’s entry point into the country and where the English language was not spoken at all.

After we had stocked up with enough food in the local supermarket, we went back to the accommodation where we first took care of very mundane things, such as washing the laundry, which has built up a bit over time. The accommodation itself was a traditional house with a shared room with a sitting area and TV and a well-equipped communal kitchen, as well as a toilet and a bathroom with a shower. The rooms were on the upper floor, of which ours was the smallest. In the evening we met a couple from France in the kitchen, but they were supposed to leave the next day. Our evening arrangement was that we went to the common room with our dinner and watched Japanese television.

The Iya Valley – Like Indiana Jones

The next day we first took the train deeper into the center of the island, the so-called Iya valley. For this we drove from Awa-Ikeda to Oboke. When we arrived at the train station, an elderly Japanese woman who was apparently the station attendant greeted us in perfect English. She asked us about our travel plans and gave us plenty of information. In contrast to the other locals, the lady was visibly extroverted and spoke to everyone and made small talk. Among other things, she assured us that a lot of foreigners would come here, which we had our doubts about, because we were of course once again the only European-looking people far and wide. We had plenty of time before our bus was supposed to arrive, so I flipped through the information materials. There, among other things, hiking trails that started right at the train station were presented. One of them lasted just 20 minutes, so we decided to walk it. The path led up a hill past a few small houses and shops and ended at a pretty little lookout point.

Typically Japan, our bus arrived at the train station on time to the minute. We got out at an onsen, a traditional bath house, and walked a few meters further, where the first sight of the day was: The peeing boy. That was exactly what the name suggests: a statue of a peeing boy. According to the official tourism website of Miyoshi, this is the most dangerous point of the Iya Valley and the local youth used the place as a test of courage by peeing down what the statue should symbolize (https://miyoshi-tourism.jp/en/spot/iyakei-peeingboy/). From here we wanted to hike through the Iya Valley. The path led along a main road, but it was hardly used. Continuing, it led us through smaller villages, some of which were barely inhabited, with collapsed houses. On the one hand there were plenty of the prostitute spiders we already knew on the street, which were generally very widespread here, on the other hand numerous lizards crossed our path. They ran quickly across the road and then disappeared into the mosquito-covered rock layers along the roadside. In general, the landscape was incredibly beautiful. We felt a bit reminiscent of Peru with the green mountains and the jungle climate. The so-called Hino valley was a particularly beautiful vantage point. It takes its name from its shape, which corresponds to the Japanese hiragana letter ひ, which represents the sound “Hi”.

After almost two hours of walking and many walks through “Country Roads”, which for some reason we sang constantly during our hike, we finally arrived at the destination of our hike, the Kazurabashi Bridge. It’s a suspension bridge that might as well have come from an Indiana Jones movie. It wasn’t particularly big, but we could see from afar how people were anxiously clinging to the ropes on the left and right as they crossed. A dilemma opened up for Kevin here. On the one hand he has a great fear of heights and you had to pay the equivalent of about 5 € to cross the bridge, on the other hand we walked all the way here and the bridge was probably Shikoku’s greatest attraction. With surprisingly little resistance, he paid the fee and headed for the bridge. Fortunately, what happened next is well documented in sound and image. Kevin clung to the ropes on the left and put one foot in front of the other with shaky legs while I walked briskly across the bridge, taking photos and videos. After this adventurous bridge crossing we visited a hall with souvenir shops and general information about the bridge and Kevin got himself an ice cream as a reward, before taking the bus back to Oboke and from there back to Awa-Ikeda.

Back on site, we got our dinner from the supermarket and ate in the common room again. Since the French couple had already left, new guests came. Specifically, it was a group of Japanese people who probably wanted to spend the weekend in the countryside. So a lot of people suddenly entered the property and brought tons of food. A lady spoke to us and asked where we come from. When we explained that we were from Germany, she suddenly switched to German and apologized for the commotion. Apparently they wanted to organize a barbecue party, but that didn’t bother us. When we asked, she explained that she had lived in Austria for a while and therefore spoke German. After the long and eventful day we finally fell into our bed despite the barbecue party and fell asleep quickly.

An unexpected awakening

It’s no secret that Kevin and I are both pretty nerdy and therefore very interested in anime and video games. One of the best-known Japanese franchises is of course at the forefront, namely Final Fantasy. So in 2020 a remake of the most popular part, Final Fantasy 7, was released and of course we wanted to play it as soon as possible. At the time of our trip to Japan the pre-orders had already started and since the game companies naturally wanted to maximize their sales, the game was available in different versions. Among other things, there was a collector’s edition for approx. 300€ in which there was not only the game, but also an artbook, a CD and above all an extremely high-quality figure of the main character Cloud Strife on a motorcycle. Regardless of the high price, the collector’s edition was long out of stock in Europe, even though the game wasn’t even out yet. The whole thing was brought to mind when we had breakfast one morning in a supermarket in Miyoshi, where a large advertising poster for this game was hanging next to us with extra advertising for the aforementioned collector’s edition. What I didn’t know at that time was that Kevin had received an email stating that the collector’s edition was available for purchase. This was made possible by the fact that we were currently in Japan and it was apparently possible to order the edition via a Japanese IP address and have it delivered to Europe. So while I was sleeping unsuspectingly after our adventures in the Iya Valley, Kevin lay awake next to me and made a decision. When I woke up the next morning, he looked me in the eyes and told me that he had finally ordered the collector’s edition around 3:00 a.m. I’m usually not very happy about Kevin’s often unreflective and impulsive buying behavior. This time, however, I found the situation quite amusing when I imagine Kevin lying awake in the middle of the night on our honeymoon and ordering this rather expensive collector’s edition. Nevertheless, I hope that he will improve his buying behavior in the future 😉

Oboke – Dense jungle and evil demons

After Kevin had confessed to me that he had made some spontaneous shopping in the night, we got ready and got back on the train to Oboke. Again, we were greeted by the extrovert station attendant, who was happy to welcome us two days in a row. At the train station there was also a guest book in which we had left a note the day before. While Kevin went to the toilet, I flipped through the entries and found that the day before a family from Germany had written something after us. With a wink they added that although they were also from Germany, they didn’t know us.

The reason for our second trip to Oboke was that we had found an interesting hiking route in the information material received at the train station, which we wanted to walk that day. This was the so-called yokai path. Yokais are a Japanese form of demons. The wild, sometimes almost untouched, nature here on Shikoku and especially in the Iya Valley led the locals to develop legends about yokais in the area in early times. But these legends also had quite a practical use. For example, due to the risk of falling or getting lost, it is not advisable to walk alone through the Iya Valley at night. So stories were invented about demons visiting the area in the dark and since people were afraid of the yokais, they stayed safe at home at night. As a small attraction, small yokai figures have been set up along a hiking trail in the Oboke area and the path that connects all these statues has become the yokai path. To get in the mood, we started at a small museum, the yokai museum. Admission is not particularly expensive and the information boards have English translations in addition to the Japanese text. The museum is nicely set up with various yokai figures next to which the underlying legends can be read. In addition, of course, there are also some funny photo stations, typical of Japan. The yokai museum shares a building with a rock museum, for which the tickets are also valid, and at the end the yokai exhibition changes to the rock exhibition, so that one can also learn something new here.

After visiting the museum, we went to look for the yokai statues along the hiking trail. The whole way takes about 1 1/2 – 2 hours, depending on your running pace. Even if there were information signs for some statues, they were unfortunately only in Japanese. In general, the path was unfortunately not very well maintained. The last section shortly before the final yokai statue was so overgrown by plants that we had to take a little detour and therefore only saw the last statue from afar. Nevertheless, the yokai trail is a great opportunity to get acquainted with nature and the legends of the region.

Since the day was of course far from over, we went a little further to a larger boat berth after completing the hike. Here one could get on small tourist boats that led through the gorge, where one could see the beautiful nature together with different rock formations. Before the start of the boat trip, as is usual with larger tourist attractions, photos were taken which could then be purchased for a price that was far too expensive. Usually I roll my eyes annoyed at something like this from the start, but this time I found the photo really pretty, so we actually bought our photo in the end. Today it is on our living room shelf, where it always attracts the interested glances of guests. Although the boat trip was quite calm, safety first is of course the motto in Japan. So everyone received life jackets that we had to put on properly. During the boat tour there were various explanations of which we unfortunately did not understand anything, as they were completely in Japanese, which was a bit of a shame, as I can imagine that there were certainly some interesting facts mentioned. Still, it was a nice boat trip that is definitely worth taking while in the area.

After the boat trip we looked at the numerous souvenir stands in the departure hall. Since we were once again the only European-looking people far and wide, we were approached several times by the staff with the request to immortalize ourselves on a large board that was located next to the ticket counter. This was an overview from which country the visitors to this place came from. Everyone received a round sticker for this, which was then placed in the field of the corresponding country.

Before we went back towards Awa-Ikeda, we went to a small restaurant near the train station, where Iya-Soba was typically served. The operator, an elderly lady, also brought us a free and really delicious green tea, the leaves of which she ground with the help of a large stone next to us. At this point I certainly don’t need to mention that the Iya-Soba was once again incredibly delicious 😉
Well strengthened, we returned to our accommodation and got ready for our departure the next day.

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