My weekend in Shikoku

This weekend, I took a trip to Kagawa Prefecture to participate in a seminar in Takamatsu. Takamatsu is one of the northern-most towns on Shikoku, Japan's smallest of the four main islands. I met up with Hiraoki, another speaker for the seminar in Okayama, and we took a train across the Great Seto Bridge (Wikipedia). This is actually a chain of bridges across several small islands, but the whole construct is about 13 kilometers long! Unfortunately, it was already after dark as we went over it, but I got a better view on the return trip on Sunday.

Saturday morning, Hiraoki and I went on an Udon tour. You see, Shikoku is considered to be especially famous for its udon cooking. Udon is a Japanese noodle dish, usually served in a broth with some extra dish on top, like a cooked egg, vegetables, or fish. You can get it anywhere in Japan, but Shikoku is filled with small udon restaurants, each owned by one family with their own personal recipe for both the udon itself, and how they serve it.

So at about 10 a.m., we headed out. When you get to a restaurant, you pay in advance (maybe 200-400 yen, typically) for a bowl of udon. There are large bins of boiling water with metal colanders hanging in them. You transfer your noodles to the colander and stir it for a few moments in the water to reheat the noodles. Then you drain them back into your bowl and move on to a large vat of broth to add to your noodles. Finally, you add whatever extra you might have paid for (like tempura kabocha, in my case). You grab a seat at a bar and dig in!

Udon is just a thick white noodle, so I was a little skeptical that it would taste different in various restaurants, but that is definitely the case. I had one mediocre batch (too salty) and one fantastic batch (but see below). We had to get back to the University for our talks in the afternoon, so we didn't go all out. But we finished up with some Hiroshima-style okinomiyaki before catching a taxi.

My talk went fine (a 90 minute presentation -- a first for me), and there was a colloquium dinner afterwards. We went to a sushi restaurant and some of the faculty recommended that I check out the shrines atop Zozu mountain before leaving Shikoku. This was great advice!

There are two shrines on the mountain, Kotohira-gu and Izutama (the inner shrine). The colloquial name is Konpira, and this is considered one of the 88 shrines of the pilgrimage inside Japan. The trek up takes 1368 steps, and it is considered traditional to count the steps on the way up (Folk Stories). I miscounted both on the way up and on the way back down, but in my defense I was trying to do it in
Japanese.

Kotohira-gu is the more impressive shrine, and it takes `only' 700 steps to get there. There are several exhibits on display: a pair of horses, the propeller of a Japanese war-ship, a scientific boat that was blessed at the shrine, traditional Japanese drums, and -- for some reason -- a set of fun house mirrors. Check my Facebook photos for more details.

But of course, you can't go that far and not finish. So I trekked on to Izutama. Really, the shrine at the very top is very humble in comparison. But there is a magnificent view of the Sanuki plains from the top. After a very long hike back down, I bought a few souvenirs and was heading back to the train station. But a little old lady in front of an udon shop came up and invited me into her restaurant. Too tired to consider my other options, I followed her in and ordered a Sanuki-Udon. It was amazing -- far better than the udon on Saturday. I chatted with her briefly in Japanese and then headed out. I got some black sesame ice cream on the way out of town and headed back to Kyoto...

When the cat's away, the mice will play

Squeak! わたしはねずみです. :)

Rieko and I took advantage of Chris's recent jaunt to a math conference in Tucson to go on a fun weekend girls' trip.

We headed to Akashi to see the famous Tako Ferry (a very cute car ferry painted with octopuses and dolphins) and Uontana which is a covered shopping arcade like Teramachi in Kyoto. Akashi is famous for tamago-yaki (similar to tako-yaki but softer and dipped in a soup before eating) which we enjoyed for lunch in one of many little restaurants that were serving it in Uontana.

We took a bus over the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge - the longest suspension bridge in the world! It links Honshu with Awaji Island. Then, we continued across all of Awaji Island to it's southern most point - Awajishima Minami. In Awajishima Minami we walked to Ibi Port to get to our amazing minshuku. A minshuku is a Japanese bed and breakfast type hotel, similar to a ryokan.

The dinner at the minshuku was crazy! We had sushi, sashimi, nabe, dried fish, grilled fish, crab, shellfish, and a live Naruto Red Snapper. It was a little creepy to see him flipping around on the plate. But once they took him away and returned with half of him filleted into sashimi and the other half delectably grilled over hot stones, we recovered admirably! It was enough to turn a person into a pescetarian.

Before dinner, we took a boat ride at high tide into Naruto Strait to see the Naruto Whirlpools in action. The picture above is a famous Hiroshige woodblock print of these whirlpools. The eddies are caused by a combination of tidal currents and the meeting of the Pacific Ocean with the Inland Sea at the straits. March and April are the best time of year to see this phenomenon as the spring tides can cause the whirlpools to spin up to 20km/hr. It was really neat to see!

Also, I was struck by the quiet. Both Shikoku Island and Awaji Island (especially the tiny Ibi Port) were quiet, relaxing escapes. It's rare in today's world to find places where you can be totally relaxed and able to enjoy nature alongside the silence of your own thoughts. It's nice.

The next day, at another tidal extreme, we were able to see the whirlpools from 45 meters above the sea at the Uzu no michi, an observation deck under O-Naruto bridge.

After enjoying the whirlpools, the Eddy and Bridge Museum in Naruto and some delicious free samples of wakame seaweed, we adventured towards Tokushima City on Shikoku. (Woo! Another island of Japan checked off the list.)

We rode the Bizan Ropeway (basically a cable car) up Mt. Bizan and got a beautiful view of Tokushima with Awaji Island in the background. On a clearer day, you can also see the Kii Peninsula to the east. Tokushima was a cool city - it had palm trees, tall buildings and an unexpectedly large number of Italian restaurants. All around there were signs, posters, statues, etc.. having to do with the Awa Odori Festival. It looks like fun! If we are still here on the right dates in August when it occurs, we should definitely check it out.