Ehime Trip: Matsuyama, Dogo Onsen – Travel in Japan (Shikoku) 愛媛県 松山市 観光 道後温泉

Ehime Trip: Matsuyama, Dogo Onsen – Travel in Japan (Shikoku) 愛媛県 松山市 観光 道後温泉

Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel, David here! Thanks for coming back for another video, or welcome if it’s your first one. How are you doing? Are you doing fine? I’m doing OK, I’ve had a nice long sleep, I’m so tired. I took a

Trip recently and that’s what today’s video is going to be about. I had a 6-hour bus ride to get back to Osaka so I’m pretty exhausted. I did sleep most of it off and I’ve just had a nice shower, so maybe I’m on the on the right road.

But instead of resting here, I am taking more videos for you, so please be grateful! Happy New Year! if this is the first one you’ve seen this year. I had a very Happy New Year on this channel, because the last video I made – I put the

Thumbnail there, the 50 Best Places to go to in Osaka Prefecture, that really blew up, I was really astonished and happy and really thankful to everyone who watched that. Just a bit of context: I get stats on YouTube and it tells me how many views I get compared to other

Videos in the same amount of time. And to be honest, in the first week, it’s rare for me to get more than 100 views for a video. Probably, maybe 10% of the videos will make it to 100 in the first week. This one made it to 250 in its

First week, which I’ve never got even close to that before. That’s like double the previous record, I think so. And for it to be the big video that I’ve been leading up to, that really meant a lot and I was very happy about that.

So thank you for your support and share it with all your Osaka loving friends or people who don’t know about Osaka yet, you can introduce them with that video! So thank you so much! Well today I’m actually not in Kansai —

Well I’m in Kansai right now, but for today’s trip I went to Shikoku Island. Shikoku Island is the big island just to the west of Osaka. You can get there by ferry fairly easily. I was going to Ehime prefecture which is on the western side of it.

So the other side, a bit of a trek from Osaka. And there aren’t really easy train connections either from Osaka. You can go around and get to it around Okayama or Onomichi, and take the train down from there.

But yeah it’s a bit of a trek. So I’m going to take you around Ehime and Matsuyama City, especially, home to Dogo Onsen, which is one of the famous Onsen from Japanese history. I’m going to show you … what else? We’ve got castles, we’ve got Ghibli stuff, we’ve got another lovely guest house

I want to recommend to everybody. So if you’re into all that, and you want to see more tours then please like this video, please subscribe to the channel, please comment as well – What was interesting in this video? Where do you want to go? And where do you want me to go next?

If the budget supports it… and also share this channel that would be really helpful for me. If you know any influential friends then definitely share to them too. I said this before, but last year I was working

Very hard on this channel and taking a lot of my time, so I wanted to kind of take it easy this year. But already I’ve got to edit about 190 videos together to make it into a nice cohesive thing. So I’m going do that later after I have

A bit of a walk. But anyway enough jibber jabber from me, as always. I’m going to switch back to a montage and I’m going to be narrating, so I’ll see you on the other side. OK, enjoy! Right let’s start our trip at

Akashi Kaikyo Ohashi bridge. This connects Akashi City in Hyogo prefecture with Awajishima, also in Hyogo prefecture. This is the big island opposite Osaka in Osaka Bay. The sun was setting, but we had quite a long drive. We still had to get off Awajishima first.

So Awajishima is connected to Shikoku by the Onaruto bridge, which connects to Tokushima prefecture. If you’re lucky you might be able to see some of the Naruto Whirlpools. I couldn’t really see them today, but there’s a visitor centre on the Naruto side of the bridge. You can

Even take a boat out there! I also wanted to introduce the Japanese service areas. Much nicer than the British service stations! You can get some nice reasonable food, get some Udon, some fried food, buy some souvenirs too. There’s a huge array of vending machines, all normally priced as well,

Not marked up horribly. You can buy hot drinks too, you can buy soup, so you can energize yourself for the long drive. You can even buy some Sanuki Udon which is a specialty of Kagawa prefecture. They like to sell local goods here.

So here we go on the road again, we’ve got quite a long drive to Ehime prefecture on the west side of Shikoku, but you can can enjoy the scenery – or at least until it gets dark. So let’s keep going.

On the way, close to Matsuyama City, there’s “Sora to Mori”, (Sky and forest) Hot Spring. A nice reasonable hot spring, very relaxing. Obviously I can’t take a lot of film inside there because people are naked! But definitely check that out

If you’ve had a long drive, very relaxing! And here was the place I was staying for a couple of nights. This is Popeye Guest House, a nice renovated old-style house with a nice kind of Showa-style living room with a Kotatsu to warm up in. And a nice relaxing bedroom too with these

Beautiful sliding doors. Very relaxing, I could sleep well that night! This also operates as a restaurant, so please check out Popeye for just a restaurant if you’re just in the area. A nice sea view from there too,

Check out Popeye, above the grocery shop in — was it Futami City? I think it’s called that. And right next to Iyo-Kaminada Station, which is a local JR station. But we had one more stop before we left this area, we’re just having

A drive one station to the south to Shimonada Station. You might be wondering why we are visiting a different rail station. It might look a bit strange, but this great platform shelter is famous. It reminds people of Spirited Away, when Chihiro was waiting for her train.

So you can take your Instagram pictures there and you can catch the one-man train. I’m going to talk about the local trains a little bit later, but as you can see, a little small one. But you can get some nice views of

The sea from here as well, on the way to Matsuyama City. It takes about 45 minutes to get to JR Matsuyama Station. There’s not that much to do around the actual JR station, but you can catch a tram. They seem quite nicely renovated as well,

They’re not like an old rickety tram like we have in Osaka. You can catch the trams, they take you all over Matsuyama City, but I decided I need some lunch. So I went to Tai Meshi “Maki”, which is a restaurant that

Serves Tai Meshi. It’s a Matsuyama favourite, which is raw sea bream (red snapper) served with soy sauce and on hot rice, and you can even put an egg yolk on top of there. Sorry my camera doesn’t focus very well. Don’t worry the eggs are safe!

That’s right in front of Matsuyama-shi Station, which is part of the Iyotetsu tram network. You can try the Ferris wheel on top, but I thought I’d take a nice walk to Shiroyama park. You can see on top of the hill there

There is Matsuyama castle. I’m not going to walk up there though, I’m going to take a long way around, walk past Ehime Prefectural Office which is right next to the park, a very interesting design, and onto the Ropeway Terminal.

There is a kind of cable car ropeway thing, and a little art gallery too, so you can see some nice art of Matsuyama City. That would be a good thumbnail I think! And unusually, there’s actually a chairlift we can take up to the top of

The castle hill. So of course I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity like that. I don’t really see a lot of chairlifts in Japan, I saw one in Amanohashidate before. But there is a cable car available if you want to wait for that.

So if you’re afraid of heights, don’t worry. It’s all very safe anyway, don’t worry! So on to the main event, Matsuyama Castle. This is not a totally original castle; it’s been rebuilt a little bit but it’s mostly intact from the 1600s, when it was built. And you get some nice

Views from the top, of Matsuyama City. A bit dazzling on this day! And some more views of… a different part of Matsuyama City, I’m not sure what that is. And of course you can have these nice panoramas, you can see Matsuyama Castle as well.

I’m not sure, is that the actual castle building? I’m not sure. Well there it is! OK this is the main keep. It only costs about 500 yen to get inside, so very reasonable. And you can enjoy the wonders of Japanese architecture from here. Not too crowded either but a nice

Place to visit. There are some fairly punishing stairways though, so if your knees aren’t very good then be careful. But there is quite an extensive museum as well. So you can see some old suits of armour, you can see

Portraits of the former owners, find out about the history. I love these kind of pre-installed moustaches on the armour. You can see some Japanese swords and spears and just read up all about the history of the castle. You can even try

On some of the armour if you’re interested in that, give that a try! And next to this ceremonial bow and arrow –I don’t know how practical they are– right at the top you can get lovely panoramic views of Matsuyama City.

So you can see the park down there that I was at before. You can see the rest of the castle area surrounded by Matsuyama City, very beautiful. So definitely go to Matsuyama Castle if the weather’s nice. Iit’s going to test your knees though, so make sure you’re at full power.

I decided to take the chair lift down because there were some nice views. You can see the city and the mountains behind. Then I took the tram again to Dogo Onsen Station. Dogo Onsen is a very famous spot in Matsuyama. This is the

Bocchan train, which apparently runs as well but I haven’t seen it actually running. There’s a big Starbucks in front of the station as well, so a nice old-fashioned building but yeah it’s a Starbucks inside. Weirdly quiet on this particular day, so I don’t know what’s going on. We’ve got a nice view of

The plaza there, including that Bocchan Karakuri Clock. Karakuri just means it’s a mechanical clock, so I think every half an hour it does this special performance. You can see the people bathing at the bottom, you can see other scenes of Bocchan’s story. Bocchan is a kind of famous tale from the area.

And enjoy Dogo Onsen shopping arcade, You can see the rickshaws there as well, you can tell it’s a touristy place. It’s a nice shopping arcade, you can buy all kinds of souvenirs from there. You can buy your Mikan stuff, all kinds of souvenirs. And Dogo Onse.n This is the main building and under

Quite extensive renovation at the moment. But this is reminiscent of Spirited Away again, apparently it’s the inspiration for some of the scenes in the bath house in that movie. The renovations will be completed in maybe July 2024 so I couldn’t really go to a lot of it. But if you don’t want

To wait for so long to visit the hot springs there, you can go to Asuka no Yu. iIt’s kind of an annex of the Dogo Onsen building, or Tsubaki no Yu right next door. It’s another quite small hot spring but very nice.

So that was enough for one day, I was going to return to Matsuyama station. I’m not sure what this guy is, Barii-san? And I don’t know what Anpanman’s doing there, I guess he’s might be famous in the area. And taking my local train back to Iyo-Kaminada Station. So I definitely don’t want to

Miss my train at that time of the night. There it goes, off into the night. These local trains might look a bit scary for tourists, but they’re very easy to use. You just pick up a ticket from the machine and pay for it at the station. So this is Futami City, this

Is where I was. I went back there to sleep obviously, some nice sea views. A nice cute little town. Even the station is very cute, it’s decorated by the local people, lots of nice photos. But I was waiting for my train

Again back to Matsuyama City. Now don’t worry, these local trains are very safe, the only danger is really missing your train, because they don’t come very often, maybe every couple of hours, so don’t miss your train! So just take a ticket from the entrance when you get on the train, and

Pay for it in the station, it’s easy! Back on the trams in Matsuyama City. They’re obsessed with Mikan here so obviously decorated like that. You can even write your own Haiku as well, put it in the Haiku post box, it’s the capital of Haikus.

I went back to Asuka no Yu just to take a bath there. I was waiting for the Dogo Onsen but it was a two hour wait, so while I was waiting for that with my timed ticket, I thought I’d go to Asuka no Yu. Another beautiful hot spring.

This is quite new I think, it’s only about 6 years old but very nicely decorated inside. So you can pay a little bit extra and wait inside this kind of Japanese tatami room. This is an extra. And you get tea and a sweet as well

As having a nice balcony view. Although I think it’s a bit too colourful on the ground there, not that traditional! OK after all that, I did go to Dogo Onsen. It was very nice to relax, but I had a bit of free time, a little

Bit of free time, so I went to Ehime Prefectural Museum of Art, where they were having a Studio Ghibli exhibition. It’s probably almost finished by the time you’re watching this, but you can enjoy some of the Studio Ghibli stuff, you can see Kao-nashi, you can see those, there’s a lot of Spirited Away

Stuff because I guess that’s connected to Matsuyama city. That was a nice tie-up to round off my trip. You can even see Yubaba there, and get one of the special omikuji fortunes. That’s it, that was my time in Matsuyama!

So there’s the bath house that is inspired by Dogo Onsen, so definitely check it out, even though there a 6-hour drive to get back to Osaka. Hi, welcome back! Thanks for watching all the way to the end, I hope

You enjoyed that video about Ehime and Matsuyama city. I hope that give you some ideas for places to go. Definitely check out Dogo Onsen, it’s a nice kind of historical — there’s a lot of hot springs around there, so I recommend those. Check out the Mikan, the little satsumas, so popular and juicy.

Of course check out Popeye the guest house I introduced just south of Matsuyama city. Like I was saying, the bus ride is about 6 hours either way from Osaka to Matsuyama. You can also get there by train but it’s a little bit tricky, just check out the routes. There’s a

Ferry as well if you really want to do it overnight, especially if you want to drive around. You might want to get a rental car and do the car ferry thing. But definitely go there! This might be the last big tour for a

Little while because I need to try and save some money, but I’m thinking about it for this year. I promised myself I was going to take it easy in 2014. 2014?! 2024! But so far I’m exhausted already, I haven’t even

Started work yet! But I’ll take some local trips around Kansai, I’ll show you the exciting other places in Kansai. Am I going to do the 50 best places in Kyoto or Nara or something like that? I’m not sure. But anyway stay tuned, please like

This video, subscribe to the channel, that will help me so much. Leave a comment — what was interesting for you? Where do you want me to go next if I can? And also share this channel, I really appreciate that, share it to all your friends,

All your influential friends as well, and I’ll see you next time. OK so take care, thanks for watching, bye bye!

This January I took a trip to Matsuyama, the prefectural capital of Ehime – the western prefecture of Shikoku island. I visited the area in and around Matsuyama City, including Dogo Onsen.

It takes quite a while to reach Matsuyama from Osaka. You could take a 6-hour bus ride, or an 8-hour ferry ride, or a rather complicated 4-hour train journey, or a short flight (but it’ll take you a while to get to the airports!).

Matsuyama City is most famous for Dogo Onsen, a historical hot spring on the east side of town. You can enjoy several hot springs around the area – the Dogo Onsen Honkan (Main Building) itself has a few different baths, but until July 2024 a lot of the building is under renovation and only the bath at the rear of the building is operating. Due to high demand, you may need to get a free reservation ticket with a time to return for your bath.

Other hot springs are available nearby – only a 2 minute walk away are Asuka no Yu, an annex of the Dogo Onsen building, and Tsubaki no Yu, a separate bath (although confusingly in the same building complex as Asuka no Yu. For an additional charge, at Asuka no Yu, you can take a rest in the 2nd floor tatami room, wear a rental Yukata and get a complimentary cup of green tea and a japanese snack.

The Studio Ghibli “Toshio Suzuki & Ghibli” exhibition is touring Japan at the moment. It will finish its Ehime stay on January 28, but during 2024 it will visit Kanagawa and Okayama, with more locations to be added. The exhibition website is: https://suzukitoshio-ghibli.com/

So sit back and enjoy my new year trip in Shikoku! I hope you enjoy the video!

Locations shown include:
Akashi Kaikyo Ohashi and Onaruto bridges
Matsuyama Sora to Mori hot spring
Popeye Guest House, Futami
Shimonada Station
Tai Meshi “Maki”
Matsuyama Castle
Dogo Onsen Honkan
Asuka no Yu
Tsubaki no Yu
Ehime Prefectural Museum of Art – Toshio Suzuki & Ghibli exhibition

Do you have any recommendations or requests for other things you’d like me to make a video of? Let me know in the comments! I just reached 600 subscribers now, thank you! Help me get even more by sharing this channel and favourite videos with your friends!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE press “like”, “subscribe” and make a comment – I want the YouTube algorithm to notice me!

#japan #ehime #matsuyama #shikoku #dogoonsen #matsuyamacastle #onsen #hotspring #shimonadastation #shimonada #travelvlog #sightseeing #japansightseeing #四国 #日本 #愛媛 #松山 #道後温泉 #松山城 #観光 #温泉 #鈴木敏夫とジブリ展 #下灘駅
—-
Background Music by Bensound.com
Intro music by Coyote Kisses