Daytrip to Shikoku - Japan Spring 2008


Daytrip to Shikoku



Friday 21st March 2008

A random daytrip to Shikoku, one of the four main islands of Japan.

Japan Spring 2008

John's Pictures
Maison de Stuff

09:04:10 One of the best things about being in Japan is Chie's Mum's miso soup at breakfast time. It is simply delicious.09:04:23 ....I particularly liked the way the clouds of miso were swirling through the soup today.09:06:32 Today's breakfast - simple and delicious.

11:02:55 Me hanging out my clothes on the balcony.12:54:55 Chie wanted me to take a picture of her wearing her Mum's glasses.12:55:23 Me having a brief spell on the computer.

12:55:37 ....not sure why Chie felt this necessary.14:47:23 Right, so eventually we got our act together and went out for the day. So here's me at Hiroshima station.14:57:29 Chie eating some form of bento on the shinkansen between Hiroshima and Okayama.

15:35:45 The train we got on from Okayama to Shikoku (unfortunately we didn't get to sit in this rather swanky double decker carriage).16:07:42 One of the highlights of going to Shikoku was taking the train over the Seto-ohashi - one of the world's longest bridges.16:07:53 ....unfortunately it is a bit hard to take pictures of it while you're actually on it!

16:07:56 ...still, that didn't stop me trying...16:09:12 One of the few pictures where you can actually see something of the bridge itself (luckily it does bend round a bit letting you look back on it here).16:09:24 ...it actually hops over several small islets between Honshu and Shikoku.

16:09:29 ...yet more of the same...16:10:35 There's Chie enjoying the ride.16:11:21 A tall sailed ship moored at one of the islets on the route of the Seto Ohashi.

16:12:03 I think I'll give up trying to write comments now for all these bridge geek pictures.16:12:20 16:14:26 Again can see something of the bridge here.

16:14:32 16:14:39 16:35:54 So here we are now on Shikoku - outside Sakaide station - where we got off in the absence of any better idea for what to do.

16:39:10 ...and then we decided to get back on the train again - here's a very blurry picture of me with an Anpanman train.16:39:19 ...by the time the camera had remembered how to focus the train had pretty much gone.16:41:25 There were some pretty excellent vending machines (自動販売機 in Japanese) in Sakaide...

16:41:32 ....close up on that Seto-Ohashi design...17:01:37 ....and in fact in Takamatsu (where we decided to go to next) there was a double whammy.17:01:55 So here we are in Takamatsu, one of the major cities on Shikoku.

17:10:35 Yes, that would be Takamatsu station.17:12:33 A map of Takamatsu.17:16:46 There was a tall building near the station with an observation lounge (or whatever you call those things) on the top floor, which offered some great views out over Takamatsu...

17:17:00 ....there's Takamatsu station...17:17:10 ....and here's looking out to sea...17:17:21 Unsurprisingly I became somewhat snap happy, and again am not going to try and write comments for all of these....

17:17:41 17:17:55 Chie with the view out to sea behind her (bit difficult to get the lighting right for these kinds of pictures).17:18:06 ....same sort of thing with me.

17:19:15 The plaza we were standing in a few minutes earlier (from where I took the picture of the front of Takamatsu station).17:20:03 17:23:26 This is the building from where the preceding photographs were taken.

18:00:08 Takamatsu (or more generally Shikoku) being famous for udon, we decided we had to find some. So here we are in an udon restaurant, with a couple of glasses of a local beer.18:11:21 Chie and her udon.18:20:14 Me and my udon.

18:20:28 The last 小有豆 (broad bean preserved in soy sauce) - apparently another regional speciality (although, despite being a huge fan of both broad beans and soy sauce I wasn't particularly keen on these).19:01:46 On the train on the way back to Honshu (the "mainland", if you can call it that) now. Chie picked up this very strange green drink to have on the train.19:02:08 ...and wanted to take numerous pictures of the bottle...

19:02:40 ...etc...19:03:05 ...and so on.20:15:37 On the Shinkansen between Okayama and Hiroshima, I thought it proper to have a beer.

20:32:56 Chie walking through the Shinkansen, not long before arriving back in Hiroshima.