The Quinn Family Excellent Adventure: Goodbye Tokyo 2 Japan

I don't think any of of slept very well with the crazy previous night. We had an early rise, last minute pack up and quick cleanup to add to the haze. We were out of our AirBnB at about 8:15, a little later than I wanted but still had a time cushion. It was time for the longish walk through the Tokyo streets, through the cool grocery store and into the train station. Once on the platform, we knew what was up. During this time, it's pretty well peak Tokyo commuter time. We let one train go past to peek into the other cars as it went by. It was jammed. No choice. The next train was kinda packed but at least you could hold onto a pole or handle. Only 12 stops I thought. After a few more stops it was clear we were going to get jammed in. We were so lucky to be on the side of the car that did not exit to these stations. Our heavy backpacks were embarrassingly in the way of others. I felt kinda bad and could not turn else crash into someone. It was hot, packed and tiring. My heart was racing. KT though she was going to barf. It was nuts. Finally we hit Tokyo station. I was hoping a bulk of the people were also getting off. Not. I kinda had to force my way out excusing as I went. KT and Michelle had it easy falling in behind my wake. Whew, that was done.

The route to our bag storage was super easy with yesterdays homework already done. Drop off and payment was slick. We enjoyed our lighter walk to the Shinkansen train location and found a Starbucks with plenty of space to relax. Yay. We had 1 hour to chill, grab some grub/drinks and prep for a long train day. The train station convenience stores have a huge selection of boxed Sushi type meals. Not too pricey as well. We each grabbed 2 meals and soon headed to our track and car location. Once on our train, we did not have to think for over 4 hours until Okayama station. Sweet. At Okayama station it was easy to find our 3 hour regular train to Matsuyama. The regular train feels slow after being spoiled by the Shinkansen. It was very beautiful to go slower beside this amazing countryside. Plenty of time to blog and relax. Once in Matsuyama, a tram was no far away and soon we were clanging down the street towards our final station Dogo Onsen Station. The tram journey revealed beautiful parks, rivers, streams flowers all yet to see. Dogo Onsen station is an epic location https://goo.gl/maps/GEB9ffMSAfXevGRx6. It is very close to several famous traditional bath houses like the Mastaysama Hot Springs https://goo.gl/maps/fbg9KWh5APFkv5Wj8.

The walk to Guesthouse Miso Soup was literally 2 minutes.
https://goo.gl/maps/sTifjMXGWpD8yEyn8.
We met Rie, the manager of the place and a few guests. After payment, rules and a tour we were checked in. As Rie was native Japanese, we asked her for advice on several things including perhaps finding Michelle's phone, local trip suggestions and where to get great sushi. She said no problemo. Guesthouse Miso Soup is an older traditional Japanese home renovated to be a guesthouse. It's like an old cottage. Not insulated, quite simply decorated, almost rustic. There were 3 guest rooms. One mixed, another women only a third I never say. 2 bunks are in the mixed and women only. It was nice and simple. We met several guests participating in the Shikoku Pilgrimage A multi-site pilgrimage of 88 temples on the island of Shikoku, Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage#/media/File:Shikoku-Pilgerweg_Karte.png

Typically walking is 1,200 kilometers, taking anywhere from 30 to 60 days to complete. We met 1 walker, 1 rider and 1 motorcycler. Apparently there is tremendous support from the community with offers of free food and lodgings along the way. Michelle and I were immediately plotting our return.
After a long travel day, we enjoyed our first sleep in our bunks.

We all slept like champs. My morning 6 AM routine found a nice quiet house. I had plenty of time to research getting to Cat Island. It appeared to be a 2 hour public transit ride to the ferry location. It required a super early departure to make the early ferry. Unfortunately it looked like the transit arrived a little before the ferry left. Dang. Taxi? 2 hours. OMG we need Rei.

SpaceX was attempting a Falcon Heavy launch for which the timing was perfect. We watched them pull a triple booster landing for the first time in history. Soon after the landing one of the Japanese guests was getting up. We struggled for communication a bit but we made it through. He had a small displacement Honda motorcycle outfitted for long duration camping. It was crazy how much stuff he managed to carry with him. During a photo op, something he said indicated he was into rockets or science. I told him about SpaceX's very recent success and he lit up. He too is a fanboi. I'm glad I connected with him. It was only 1 hour later and he was off. Another Japanese guy was soon on his pedal bike and was off. I got a shot of his bike's generator, something I thought was dead tech is still quite popular. Sweet

Others began to awake and soon Rei was preparing her breakfast. She asked about making the lost phone call. I had compiled very specific details about the phone type and lost location. She found a better number to call and bam. Someone had found the phone and it was waiting to be reconnected. They immediately began shipping it to Matsuyama estimating it to cost around 1000 Yen. On a Saturday, wild. We were ecstatic. Rei, Michelle, and KT coupled the good news with a "Sushi Train" suggestion she had. Rei loved excellent Sushi but was very frugal with her money. An excellent Sushi location was not close and she offered to take us. Of course we would buy to thank her for her help. I thought Rei would help up with a long walk or transit. Nope we drove in her car. Wow that is service. On the drive, I asked her about Cat island and transport. She had a very different perspective on Cat Island Aoshima, Ehime https://goo.gl/maps/Sm5VgDW8zGWD1fiX8

This island had only become recently popular and due to a YouTube video. The local population is very small and they cannot handle the tourist attention. Many come, disturb the locals and leave behind plenty of garbage. This is not something I was interested in doing. We were to think about it more. If we did go, I'd be bringing garbage bags to cleanup the mess and somehow communicate we are sorry for the intrusion. The Sushi place was awesome. Not expensive at all and totally fun. We got some movies of the train delivery which is so cool. It was so nice to a great Sushi experience.

KT broke in some shoes on a long walk and got a few blisters. We needed some simple antiseptic cream so things went smoother. The local pharmacy had plenty but it was tough to translate the boxes of product. Even the Google translate App camera struggles a lot as well. The pharmacist heard our struggle and got her small electronic translator. It worked amazing for both languages. No training necessary. This is something we and later KT will certainly benefit from. I had to do some research.

It was about this time I was struggling with the magnitude of images we were generating. With my blogging process I work on copies of the original images rather than risk our main copy. My computer microSD card was no longer big enough. Time to get a 64 or 128 GB. It was also finally time to grab some shoes as mine were long past done. A little Googling found 2 huge electronics/sports stores about 5 KM's away. Sweet. Over the next few days I walked like 3 times. It was awesome to get a feel for the place. The microSD card was simple enough to find. Shoes were crazy hard. I take a 10, but in Japan I needed an 11. There were only a few 10's and 2 11's in this entire sports store. Wild.

The translator device I chose took a bit of time. The device available her is called a PocketTalk https://www.pocketalk.net/ According to my research it needs internet through WiFi or a Sim. One version included a 2 year worldwide Sim plan. That was the best choice for us and KT. Showing up at airports with crappy WiFi and no Sim is where this is needed most. I tried to decipher the stores Yamada Denki and K's Denki (Denki is Electrical) website for details. I was concerned about the need to activate the Sim. It's been a problem in other places. Once I got to the store the staff and I struggled a bit but used the translator to learn about the translator. It was not 100% clear I could simply walk away and use it. Fortunately it turned out ok. Once back home Rei challenged it against an App she had found with much time researching called VoiceTra https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.go.nict.voicetra&hl=en
VoiceTra was actually really good but lost one three things. No Global Sim, No noise elimination and countries supported. The Pocketalk supports 128 languages whilst VoiceTra only 33. Worth the $

We bailed on Cat Island, KT understood. It looked like a rainy day anyway. We chose to sleep in, relax and let a rain day not bum us out. One of the guests we met at Guesthouse Miso Soup awoke with exactly the same idea. We learned her name was Jude and she too was a teacher. We talked for hours literally melting away the entire afternoon and early evening. She was cool. A very compassionate teacher for which we need more of. Her Japanese and Japan experience was really good so she offered us all kinds of cool angles of local experiences. Being a math wiz and a physics teacher, we had a huge number of great conversations.

I forgot to mention one cool part of Guesthouse Miso Soup. All our conversations, research, relaxing was done around a low heated table called a Kotatsu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu. The table itself is quite low but below the table is a cutout in the floor perfect to sit your feat. In the center is a heater. Fire it up and soon you have toasty feet and a comfortable seat. It was grand.

While I was walking epic amounts of KM's, Michelle and KT were checking out epic local sites and getting Tatoo's. Yes KT got a tattoo.

Jude told us in our Kotatsu conversation about the local Bath houses or Onson's. We were contemplating it but need to know a few things. Apparently the truly traditional Onson's refuse those with tatoos. There is interesting history in Japan with Tatoo's https://taramoss.com/visiting-japan-tattoos/ There is also a certain etiquette with Onsens one must adhere too. We were a little scared off until this conversation. Fortunately because of Jude, we went to our first Onsen that evening. The process is kinda neat. We went early attempting to avoid the crowds. We stood in line in the rain for only a few minutes. We first locked up our umbrella's, yes there is an umbrella lockup station. We then paid for our tickets and locked up our shoes. We were then separated into Women and Men bath's. Once in the bath location we needed to get completely naked. Lockers were available for your stuff. After that we walked into the hot spring itself and head first to a wash up location were we were required get completely clean. It was kinda weird learning what to do but thankfully there the place is busy and you can watch others as to what to do. After washing up you simply walk slowly into a pretty hot spring pool. For whatever reason, a majority of the locals have a small face cloth sized towel they lie on their head. It's bad manners to let it into the water. Whatever, I had no towel. Problem solved. The water was crazy hot. I could only last about 10 minutes. After that a quick cleanup/dress up and I was ready to split. It was great. We met up outside and felt great. KT wanted to attend but her tatoo was on the ankle and could not get wet. Bummer. We soon had to leave Matsuyama. We said goodbye to everyone in the evening as our departure was super early. Thanks Guesthouse Miso Soup.

The short walk to Guesthouse Miso Soup