Japan Takamori-yama

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  • Day 239

    Ozu River, Ozu, Japan

    June 1, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Our favourite place to sit and relax in Ozu, this riverside area was idyllic. To the left the castle tops the hill, shrouded in trees. In front, the expansive river and then mountains in the distance. To the right a bridge, with a slow trickle of cars passing by, or stopped for the crossing with the iconic bird noise beeps. Golden eagles circle the area, and storks hunt along the river edge.

    It was a popular place with the locals too, as a nice dog walking spot, for children to play, or just somewhere to sit and relax. We came back to the area quite a few times, even eating lunch there.
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  • Day 15

    Ozu continued

    April 29 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We happened to find a charming tea shop where we learned about and brewed high-quality sencha tea. It was delicious.

    We walked around the historical part of town, enjoying the ambience.

    Then we made our way back to the train station for our next adventure.Read more

  • Day 78

    Daytrip to Uwajima

    December 3, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Today, my goal was to make a daytrip further south to visit Uwajima, specifically the Taga-Shrine that can be found there. It is one of the only two remaining Shrines that are dedicated to sexuality. You can find a whole bunch of phallus statues there and you can buy a special O-Mamori that Instead of an o-fuda (paper with written prayer) contains a little golden penis. Those are intended to protect against becoming impotent. :-) while I do not need it yet, who can predict the future ;-D... I'd love to get some as a funny collectible at least. The train ride was smooth and direct, once out of the train station I walked to Taga Shrine and bought a lot of what they had on offer, the old monk certainly earned a lot that day from just me :-D. I was the only one at the Shrine and in the Museum. He switched on the lights and heating just for me... It was pretty interesting, lots and lots of explicit statues, figures, votive items, mostly 🍆 but also 🍑 and steamy depictions from all over the world. Once I left, I also visited the nearby Warei Shrine where I bought more o-mamori because they had some very pretty ones. The final location I visited was the small but cool Uwajima-jo 🏯 which also had a great view over the city and into the bay. My train back to Matsuyama left a little past 17:00 and back in Matsuyama I spent the evening relaxing and packing up for my leave tomorrow. I will miss this splendid Hotel, but I am sure the one in Hiroshima will be just as great.

    Google Translate:
    Heute war es mein Ziel, einen Tagesausflug weiter in den Süden zu machen, um Uwajima zu besuchen, insbesondere den Taga-Schrein, der sich dort befindet. Es ist eines der wenigen verbliebenen Heiligtümer, die der Sexualität gewidmet sind. Dort finden Sie eine ganze Reihe von Phallusstatuen und Sie können ein spezielles O-Mamori kaufen, das anstelle eines O-Fuda (Papier mit geschriebenem Gebet) einen kleinen goldenen Penis enthält. Diese sollen vor einer Impotenz schützen. :-) Auch wenn ich es noch nicht brauche, wer kann schon die Zukunft vorhersagen ;-D... Zumindest als lustiges Sammlerstück würde ich mir gerne welche zulegen. Die Zugfahrt verlief reibungslos und direkt. Nachdem ich den Bahnhof verlassen hatte, ging ich zum Taga-Schrein und kaufte eine Menge von dem, was dort angeboten wurde. Der alte Mönch verdiente an diesem Tag sicherlich viel Geld an mir :-D. Ich war der einzige im Heiligtum und im Museum. Er schaltete das Licht und die Heizung nur für mich ein ... Es war ziemlich interessant, viele, viele explizite Statuen, Figuren, Votivgegenstände, hauptsächlich 🍆, aber auch viele 🍑 und sehr gewagte Darstellungen aus der ganzen Welt. Als ich ging, besuchte ich auch den nahe gelegenen Warei-Schrein, wo ich weitere O-Mamori kaufte, weil es dort einige sehr hübsche gab. Der letzte Ort, den ich besuchte, war das kleine, aber coole Uwajima-jo 🏯, das auch einen tollen Blick über die Stadt und in die Bucht bot. Mein Zug zurück nach Matsuyama fuhr kurz nach 17:00 Uhr ab und zurück in Matsuyama verbrachte ich den Abend damit, mich zu entspannen und für meinen morgigen Urlaub zu packen. Ich werde dieses großartige Hotel vermissen, aber ich bin mir sicher, dass das in Hiroshima genauso großartig sein wird.
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  • Day 240

    Ozu Castle, Ozu, Japan

    June 2, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    A fun castle to explore, and our main activity for the day in the relaxed Ozu! It had been rebuilt only around 20 years ago, but it had been excellently done. The craftsmanship was superb, and it felt like it could have been the original (although obviously in better condition and with better stairs!). There was insight into the building of the castle inside, and wonderful views from the windows.

    We must have been earlier than most people as we had the castle to ourselves for a few minutes, before other tourists entered. Afterward we exited we relaxed outside for a few minutes too, enjoying the eagles soaring so close by!

    The town also renovated various properties around the town as hotels to boost tourism, which we would have loved to stay in but were out of our price range. And after all, we had a cat ryokan instead so it's not all bad!
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  • Day 239–241

    Ozu, Japan

    June 1, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Lovely little Ozu town is out of the western tourist route usually, so although we did see some other westerners there (to Luke's disdain) we still got some odd looks and double takes.

    It was beautifully serene though and perfect for a couple nights stop over; we enjoyed exploring the area a little bit, chilling by the river, and I had fantastic meat filled dinner's at the local teppanyaki place that our ryokans owner kindly booked us into. Luke managed to get a few grilled vegetables and cheeses too, although delicious the restaurant wasn't too veggie friendly.

    The ryokan has to be one of the oddest places we've stayed, with 8 cats wandering around and being adored by the clientele. They could even go into your room if you didn't close the cat flap door! The 70s style building really added to the odd experience too.
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  • Day 239

    Firework display, Ozu, Japan

    June 1, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    As we checked into our ryokan the owner told us that there was fireworks by the castle that evening, which immediately peaked our interest.

    Unfortunately that was the end of the information we managed to find out about them. Why were they happening? Is it a frequent thing? Is it done mostly for tourists? We have no clue!

    We had to get a later dinner slot than we wanted so had to rush to get a good view at 8 when it was supposed to start, but then we ended up standing by and waiting. There was a small trickle of boats coming down the river, accompanied by a drumming sound, that we assume were connected to the fireworks so we watched as they came by. There was a lit lantern hanging from one of the smaller boats, and as it past by us the fireworks started. Slowly at first but building to a rather impressive crescendo, it was fun to see the sky around the castle light up and we still aren't sure if we got extremely lucky, or if its a weekly occurance kinda thing but we still enjoyed it!
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  • Day 165–166

    Cycling day 2: Hojo -> Ozu

    April 25, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    75km and 520m ascent today and the sun came out - hooray! Started by going through the suburbs of Matsuyama and then out into the open and up into the hills, or, one big punishing hill and then a long roll home.

    Some beautiful little villages up in the hills, the soba restaurant we were hoping for was shut so thanks to Lawson for providing lunch, and then into the town of Ozu, which is in a big valley at the convergence of two rivers and feels like it is delightfully stuck in the 80s.

    We stayed in an amazing cat ryokan with the loveliest owner and had a fabulous bath and were woken up by the cats sitting on us.
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  • Day 20

    Nanrakuen Garden to Uwajima

    March 30, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    This is one of the quintessential Japanese gardens. Not the most famous one but definitely a beautiful example. I go early so I can leave my pack in the house. There is nobody in the gardens and I'm here all by myself, it feels strange, but I'm lucky that in such populated place as Japan I can have a solo experience of Sakura at its peak. Some of these cherry trees are over 200 years old.

    In Uwajima I visit the castle and find even older cherry trees. I'm thinking of getting dinner rest in the park but it's Saturday and there is a kids performance on stage with food trucks all around. More fun to be had.

    At the hostel I run into Christine from Denmark again and meet Benjamin from France. But astonishingly Agnes shows up again. I thought I was way ahead of her. Nice kitchen dinner conversation in French after the Onsen with lots of Japanese and Benjamin.
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  • Day 29

    Ozu

    March 14, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Ozu hat eine kleine, hübsche Altstadt und eine Burg die wieder neu errichtet wurde. Das passiert in Japan immer häufiger, Burgen sind wie große Fachwerkhäuser und mit vorhanden Bauplänen von früher können somit die Burgen als Attraktionen für Touristen nachgebaut werden. Sonst ist es ein kleiner verschlafener Ort durch den der große Pilgerpfad auf Shikoku führt.Read more

  • Day 15

    Ozu

    April 29 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    A morning train, an Anpanman train no less, took us from Yawatahama to Ozu for our next castle. It's a small one but a good one. Part of the town is preserved as it was in the samurai period.

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