1400 Steps

One place I really wanted to see in Shikoku was the Iya Valley, one of Japan's three "hidden regions." Three is a magic number in Japan, so to be in the big three is really something. It's famous for its steep mountains, which is saying a lot for Japan. Japan is about 70% mountains, but they are so steep nobody lives there. They are all crowded onto the plains and the coast. The Iya Valley was remote enough for the Heike clan to find refuge in the 12th century after being ousted from power in a civil war. They built these vine bridges over the steep canyons, which are easy to cut when enemies are chasing you. There are two places where original bridges exist (although they get rebuilt every 3 years or so and are now reinforced with steel cables). They are major tourist attractions, but are pretty far out in the country. All of the sites in the valley are pretty far spaced, so we decided to take a Japanese tour bus. It was called the Bonnet Bus Tour. It was basically an old school bus with a GPS. I really admire these bus drivers. They have to be good to navigate these narrow, winding roads through the mountains. By narrow I mean just big enough for the bus to get through. There are a few spaces where the road is wide enough for a car to pass. So when we met a car going the other way, it would have to back up to one of these "wide" spots where it could squeeze through (See picture).

Our first stop was a boat ride on the Yoshino river. It was a deep rocky gorge, and we saw Japanese Narcissus Flycatchers flitting among the rocks. The boat ride was nice, but we just took a very short trip between the rapids. I guess the real way to do the river is a whitewater rafting trip, so maybe next time. Wwe had to sit on the hard wooden floor of the boat, which was pretty uncomfortable. I tried sitting on one of the floatation seat cushions, but was told that was not what they were for. 

Lunch was included in the tour, and the centerpiece was a cold dead fish. The whole thing was there, giving me a dirty look. since there was nothing much else to eat, I dug in, picking little flakes off the bones with my chopsticks. Trying to appear cool, I ate one of the internal organs, which tasted really nasty. I'm sure it gave me Hirohito's revenge later that night (Japanese version of Montezuma's revenge). I noticed the old lady sitting across from me didn't touch her fish. 

The tour was kind of a whirlwind type tour, with 20 minutes or so at each spot. We stopped at a gem museum, which was nice, but wasn't sure what it had to do with the Valley. We stopped at one of the Heike houses and saw how they lived after getting kicked out of Kyoto (not very well). 

The high point was the vine bridge at Nishi Iya. There was a waterfall there too, and some nice swimming holes, which we'll have to come back and try out. We had seen a reconstructed bridge at the Shikoku Village, but this one was a little scarier, hanging over the rapids with big rocks underneath. The slats looked plenty wide enough to slip through.

It was a long bus ride back, with a short stop at the "piss boy" statue (according to one translation), a statue commemorating a traditional spot for showing off your bravado by peeing off the side of the cliff. Theo and I really wanted to enhance our appreciation of Japanese culture by continuing the tradition, but Masami wouldn't let us. 

Masami had booked us into a nice traditional Japanese inn, with better food, and giant carp in a tiny pond that the landlady swore were goldfish sized when she put them in. I had nightmares about those carp climbing the stairs while we were sleeping, and woke up with a start when I swear I felt a wet slimy mouth closing over my big toe.

We left Shikoku the next day, but made one more stop on our way, at Kotohira. One of the most famous shrines in Shikoku is there. It's famous for all of its steps. There are 800 going to the shrine itself. Masami is trying to get into shape, so we gave it a shot. the first 800 weren't too bad, so we did 600 more steps to the next shrine at the top of the hill. It was a nice walk through the forest, and a view of the town below (I'd have to say that they had the better view, though). Theo actually counted 812 steps to the first shrine and 614 to the second. Lazier people can be carried to the top in a sedan chair hoisted by two guys. 

Being a major tourist attraction, the stairs were lined with all kinds of souvenir shops, wood carving shops, ice cream, Japanese sweets, and a sake factory with a Masami-sized bottle of sake. A wood carver let Theo carve a little of a big statue he was working on. Temples and shrines are major tourist attractions, and sometimes there are things that seem to be incongruous. Inside the shrine there were two funhouse mirrors, the kind that stretch you out or shrink you. What were they doing in a shrine? 

After that, we were back on the mainland, zooming along in the shinkansen (bullet train) to the end of the mainland, Kagoshima, in the shadow of a smoking volcano.

P.S. There are now full sized versions of all these pictures on the web, which you can see if you follow the link in the upper right hand corner of this blog.