For the life of me I can’t keep the name of this place straight. Takamatsu. The other side of the island of Shikoku is Matsuyama. The ferry terminal is in Tokushima. The stop I met my cousin for lunch is Tokuyama.

The train noises last night were successfully masked by my Bose Earbuds. The thing I was most afraid of was the clattering of the wheels on the rails and they didn’t bother me at all. Phew.

Breakfast at the hotel was also pretty good. Surprisingly strong coffee out of the coffee machine too.

The view from my seat at breakfast was also pretty nice. I didn’t get a paroramic picture so here’s two shots.

I walked around a bit and checked out the old and dying shopping street we usually stay near. The only surprise was the newer spot I found for breakfast, a Greenberry chain restaurant, was gone!

Anyway, onto the train. Okayama Station confuses me. Take the wrong stairs or tunnel and you can end up at a dead end. Some of the platforms can have two different numbers, depending on how far you go up or down the same platform. Today I kept looking at the sign above the track where I thought my train was leaving and it had a different train number and Kochi instead of Takamatsu. I think I figured out that it was an arrival sign, which isn’t common, instead of a departure sign.

Oh, and a picture of my hotel from the train platform. You can see how I could hear all the train and platform noises.

I was excited to be in the double-decker car. Unfortunately I found out I was on the lower deck. There are parts of the ride where all I could see was a concrete barrier and I think the upper deck could see over the barrier. I got to see parts of the inland sea during the bridge crossing so it wasn’t all bad. A short uneventful trip.

I got to Takamatsu station before lunch and got recommendations to see the castle grounds and a free observation deck, Also got a recommendation for a close shop for Sanuki udon, something the area is famous for. I got a small bowl of udon with a korokke and tempura chicken. Tempura chicken is not all that common!

Udon was always my favorite as a kid while my sister and my mom preferred ramen. I ws quite happy.

After that it was off to see the castle ruins. The main tower is just a hole now.

There is a rebuilt castle turret.

There’s a beautiful garden (I talked to one of the gardeners) but I don’t take pictures of gardens because that’s all my dad would take pictures of. Gardens, trees, and plants. But I did sneak a picture of the nice gardener.

There’s also an old buidling that used to be the government offices for the castle. Lots of signs on the ground say it’s not open and to do a walkthrough online. But it was open for a multinational art exhibit that’s only FOUR DAYS LONG! Running into something like that is heafven for Mr. I-don’t-plan-anything-in-advance. At the end there was a display from a local shrine and the young kid at the end was the head priest! There’s a festival tomorrow but I’m leaving, darn it.

So what did I go see next? The 2km long shopping street! The most Japanese government thing to do is to put a glass dome at the start of it.

But before I started down the long walk, I got a very good cup of pourover coffee.

I think there was some training going on so I saw things like pouring a little hot water out to make sure you don’t use less heated water in the spout, wetting the filter, making a divot in the middle of the grounds, spooning out any of the grounds that aren’t quite right, and then pouring the hot water around the outside of the grounds. It was the smoothest coffee I’ve had that was still slightly acidic.

The shopping street was impressive especially since most shopping streets in Japan are dying. I made it almost to the end before I started seeing permanently closed shutters. That end of the shopping street definitely needed renewal. The north end near the dome had Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Tiffany, and Coach stores. I wondered if everyone in Takamatsu was loaded. But not far away, the high-end brand name good were in the windows of pawn shops, so no, there’s just a very fancy start to the street.

I got back to the hotel around 3pm and wanted to sit my fat ass down for a bit. When I first got here I remembered the name “Clement” and went to the hotel. It was fancy. Turns out there’s a fancy Clement Hotel, and a Clement Inn for peasants like me right next door. I think I knew that when I booked my hotel because the room charge was more expensive than I expected but when I got my room it was on the top floor, beyond a card-key access door. The big public bath is on the top floor too, but it’s on the other side of the card-key door. I think this is as close to a club floor for peasants as you can get. I probably decided to go for the nicer peasant room rather than a cheaper fancy room when I reserved this one.

Here’s the view out my window. That’s not cropped very well. It’s a panoramic picture. I should stick to taking multiple pictures.

I left to go to the observatory floor mainly because I had forgotten about the recommendation. Very nice for free.

The Seto Inland Sea.

The port area.

Several shots of the town.

Last time we came I thought it was a small town that was mostly cemeteries. The road on the left side of this picture is the one we came in on. The grey area below the trees is all graveyards. Turns out that’s just a tiny part of the city.

Anyway, off to dinner. I kinda wanted to go to….

but I came to my senses. I talked to the Tourist desk people and they said the famous local dishes were the Sanuki udon and bone-in chicken. There’s hime (young) and oya (old) chicken and I couldn’t find any of the oya at restaurants with bone-in chicken in the station. I had to go to an izakaya where the sign said you had to have one drink. He said oolong tea counted (it’s a cheat code in Japan for people who don’t drink) and I got that and a kaizen (seafood?) salad.

I’m pretty sure the salad was meant for more than one.

Guess who ate most of his chicken before taking a picture? Like Tokushima, you cut the chicken off the bone with scissors.

Almost everyone was ordering the “old” chicken and the young guy sitting next to me let me take a picture of his chicken when it came out. It was delicious. Very peppery and cartiliginous but I do like chicken. I didn’t like the chicken in Tokushima that much (kind of bland) but this was great. You cut it of of the bone using scissors and hope that you’re not clumsy enough to splatter the chicken fat all over.

Anyway, that’s it except for the snack I bought. I get a Bokksu snack box from Japan every month and they often have “financier”s in them. I thought I should get a fresh one when I saw a shop selling them.

And for my sister, an obligatory Wilkinson pic.

The big bath was completely empty when I went. I could’ve seen more stuff but this day hasn’t been bad at all.