Yawatahama and Matsuyama or how to get to an onsen

When we were in New Caldeonia, one of our friend's roommates (who became our friend in her own right) told us that she has a friend, Kei, in Japan and that we should contact her for advice. Rony started talking to her via Facebook and she soon invited us to stay at her place. She lives in a small town named Yawatahama, where there isn't much to see, however it is a central location to reach several other great towns that we wanted to visit, so we obliged.

Since we had missed our original train, the one that we had already told her that we would arrive on, we tried calling her to let her know we'll be arriving an hour later, but as much as we tried, we couldn't get through. We had general directions of how to get to her, but the end of the directions were "and then call me and I'll meet you because the rest is hard to explain."

A few days before coming, Kei sent Rony a message on Facebook saying she's really excited that we're coming (not that we had ever met) and that she organized a small party in our honor with a bunch of her friends! We arrived an hour late, of course, and proceeded to call her.

But she didn't answer.

At this point, we were stressing out a bit. The people at the station were incredibly nice (as usual) and let Rony use the station's phone, not a pay phone. Meanwhile, the station manager proceeded to talk to Talia and (of course) ask where we are from. He then told her that our friend had come by an hour earlier to pick us up and left when she saw we didn't arrive. At this precise moment, Rony was able to get through to Kei and she came to pick us up.

We stayed inside the station since it had been snowing all day. (On a side note, if in Australia we brought the rain, in Japan we bring the snow). Kei arrived with a friend and was sweet as can be, and we hopped into her car and arrived at her apartment 5 minutes later. To our surprise and delight, about 8 or 10 of Kei's friends were standing in the cold at the entrance to the building complex, holding a big sign that said, "Welcome Rony and Talia!" We were so touched, it was just amazing. Here are these people who have never met us, who don't even know where we are from ("Wait - you aren't from France? OH!"), and they are doing all of this for us.

The guys all volunteered to help us carry our things upstairs, but we were fine, and we entered the cutest apartment (and large by Japanese standards!) when suddenly a bunch of the girls yelled, "Stop!" Turns out that Kei's pug (dog), Anzo, was also so excited about our arrival that she pooped in the living room!

Anzu the dog

We removed our shoes at the entrance, and entered the apartment, where there was a room full of food of all kinds - all looking delicious! - and the sign that they had held was now hung on the wall.

Since we had already arrived, they began making a Japanese specialty, which is balls of dough with stuff inside - in this case, vegetables and sausage. It was DELICIOUS! Mid-way through eating these really delicious balls, there was a ring at the door: Turns out that the train station sent over pizzas for our party! It's a very small town and everyone knows everyone, plus one of the guests works at the train station. We were just flabbergasted! Where else in the WORLD does a train station send pizzas to a party in honor of two people who no one knows?

After the "salty" version of the balls came the sweet versions with chocolate, and omigoodnesstheyareyum! The guests consisted basically of two groups of people: Those who Kei had grown up with since school, and other people from work. She organizes the English program at all the schools in the towns in the area (they have native-English speakers come to be assistants) so there were a few native English speakers there from London and Guam. It was just an incredible evening and we had the best time.

The next morning, we had the funniest wake up call. All of the doors in the apartment are sliding doors, and, as it turns out, a lack of thumbs does not prevent a dog from opening them. Thus, a few minutes before 8 am, we heard the door slide open and tiny little paw steps on the wood floor, and we opened our eyes to see a smiling pug staring us at the face. We just busted out laughing, it was the funniest look ever, and then she hopped on the bed (after being invited) and started running around us in circles. Since we speak dog fluently, it was very clear that she was saying, "It's morning! Come play! Come on! I want to play! Play with me! Look at me! Let's plaaaaaaay!!!!"

Anzu (mish-mish) having a good time on Rony's lap

We were supposed to go for a morning hike in the mountain with Kei and one of her friends who was at the party the night before, but it had snowed heavily at night, enough that hiking would have been dangerous. So we skipped the hike and went on to our next stop: Matsuyama. This was our plan all along, but since it was Sunday, Kei and a couple of her friends joined us (one of them drove us) and we all went together. All along the way it was snowing (you're welcome, Japan), which we were told is very odd for the region - it usually snows about once a winter, and even then not as much as it did now.

Those are famous caracters of a manga we don't know. But it was fun anyway

After having some lunch, our first stop was the Matsuyama castle, which is beautiful. There are two options to reach the castle - climb or take the tram. Gluttons for punishment as we are, we decided to climb. A zillion steps. But it was fun. Talia has gotten into such great shape, that she actually ran part of the way (albeit so she can take this Rocky-style picture at the top):

On the way, just after those steps, we saw a temple with a gate an the entrance where the popular thing to do is fling rocks and try to get one to land at the top. So we tried. After huffing and puffing our way up, we arrived at the freezing castle, but it was so interesting! It had a mini museum in it, and views all around (it was several stories high), and everywhere we stopped we saw incredible views of the city and the mountains.

Matsuyama castle

View of the city from the castle

One of the highlights of the castle visit was actually the samurai battle uniforms that we got to put on! Take a bunch of 30-somethings and tell them they can dress up as samurais, and trust us, you'll have a handful of 6-year-ols on hand. :-) Look how awesome we looked!

We climbed down the mountain, spending way more time there than we had originally planned and proceeded to go to the famous Dogo onsen in town.What's an onsen? We're glad you asked! An onsen is a hot spring where people come to bath. You shower before you enter so the water remains pure. It's divided into male and female because... you are naked when you go in. We were taken upstairs, sat down in a communal room where we would later receive tea and cookies, and given a kimono to wear for after the bath. We then split up - the 3  boys went one way, and the two girls went the other.

Dogo Onsen. It was the model of the main location of Spirit Away

Talia knew that we were planning on visiting an onsen or two when we were in Japan, but didn't realize it would be today. Although she tried, and even bought the ticket, she couldn't bring herself to go in. Even though the Japanese go to onsen from childhood (there were really young kids there), and everyone is very comfortable and no one looks at the others, Talia ended up going back to the tea room to wait for the others to return. Rony, on the other hand, had an amazing time.


Rony: It was my first time in an onsen, of course, and luckily I was with Kei's friends to explain to me what to do. There are rules in onsen that need to be followed and a newcomer is always noticed, so it was easier not to be alone.

The rules vary a bit from one onsen to the other, but here is how it works in Dogo Onsen: First you enter the common changing room where you see many dressed, half dressed, and naked men. About 30 of them (it was a Sunday.) You put your clothes in a locker of your choice and take only a small towel with you that is used to cover your strategic part(s) on the way to the common bath. We brought a towel with us, but it's possible to rent it there.

Once in the bath area, there are several showers on the side walls. They are open of course, so everybody can see you shower. For each shower, there is a small stool that you sit on while you shower. You can use soap or not, but you have to scrub yourself with the small towel you brought with you. The whole time you're with your back to the common bath tub.

Now for the strategic part: You have to enter the bath smoothly without showing too much of your private parts (not at all in my case) and keep the towel out of the bath tub (because it's filthy with your body dirt). So my friends suggested I keep the towel folded on my head, as some Japanese do.

The hot spring is not a regular bath, it's a boiling hot bath, which is great in the winter. The room is filled with steam and you can't stay in it very long (I stayed for 20 minutes before I started to feel dizzy), but you're warmed up for the rest of the day.

Talia who didn't get in was still freezing when we got out while I was warm.

After a good bath

When everyone got back (somehow at the same time), we all had some tea and ginger cookies (yum!) and then went outside to head back. We stopped at a local bakery by the onsen to warm up, we mean try another local pastry (which was delicious), and then went to car. The drive is about an hour and a bit in each direction, but at this point it was rush hour, and many of the roads were closed because of the snow, which caused extra traffic.

Just before we got back, we stopped at a local restaurant chain, called Joyfull, for dinner, and then went back home where were enthusiastically greeted by the Anso the dog (which we all now called mish mish because her name actually means apricot) and apathetically greeted by the cat (which we forgot she had). We talked for a few hours, and we updated the blog for your reading pleasure, and turned in ourselves.

Photos from Yawatahama and Matsuyama:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=611372&id=906005363&l=c1c7224165