After a short but fulfilling stay in Matsuyama, we take another relaxed train ride along the Seto sea to the Eastern end of Shikoku and the “small” coastal town of Takamatsu. Despite only being a local centre at best it’s still very much a large city by our standards (over 400,000 inhabitants), with the now familiar wide, straight avenues backed by a grid of narrower streets and the perennial covered shopping arcade - which here stretches for well over a kilometre! Our train arrives just for lunchtime and once we’ve checked into another Comfort Hotel (fast becoming our favourite chain) we need to find food. Tired of having to research restaurants to death, we ask the front desk for a recommendation - and strike gold as the receptionist enthusiastically sends us to a small local place only open for lunch.
It’s a noodle bar but of a different kind: the only choices are portion sizes and to have a side dish or not, and there’s not even a menu as all the customers seem to be regulars. That’s a bit of a problem for us but luckily we’re kindly helped through our confusion once again, and manage to get our order slip and queue up. A handful of chefs are making the noodles fresh behind the counter, and as we reach them we each get a bowl with a raw portion, which we then progress on to boil ourselves at a counter. Equipped with our now cooked noodles we move on to the next station where we can add flavourful stock and various toppings before collecting our side dish and sitting down at tables that would look at home in a school cafeteria. Despite the simplicity of the whole set-up the food is absolutely delicious and we wolf it down in proper Japanese style, regretting not to have ordered bigger portions!
After this truly authentic meal, we decide to split up for the afternoon and explore our separate ways for a bit. Ollie heads back to the arcade for a little watch shopping (Japan is the home of visionary watch-maker Seiko) and I wander slowly through town back to the seaside, checking out temple and parks as I go. My goal: the old castle gardens, right by the station. There’s no shortage of sights on the way: even the underpasses have a selection of artworks in them! Once I reach the shore, the castle is just behind the tram terminus. There’s not much left of the stone dungeon, but the park is very pretty, with a lovely field of sakuras, some gorgeous formal zen gardens, and pretty gatehouses guarding the lot.
After a pleasant couple of hours exploring the park, I slowly head back to meet Ollie along the shopping arcade. He’s cased all the major watchmakers in town and is now very tempted to buy an expensive souvenir - but is taking some time to think it through. As we walk back towards our hotel, we pass a fancy-looking supermarket and duck inside, curious. We’re in luck as it has a massive ready-meal section, well-stocked with what frankly qualifies as gourmet food by our standards.
We can’t resist and each select a pile of dishes to try, and come back to the comfortable common room with a much bigger meal than needed. It’s all delicious though, and definitely a step above the (already nice) 7-eleven fare we’ve had a few times already: we’ll repeat the experience!
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