The Comfort Hotel chain offers patrons free breakfast in its big common room, and we can’t miss the occasion to discover what counts as typical for the first meal of the day in Japan. It turns out odder than we expected: while there is some usual enough food like yogurt and fruits, and scrambled eggs and sausages, the main part of the buffet is a wide selection of hot and cold salads with exotic sauces, soup, white rice and a hot dish of the day - most memorably rose chicken. Unlimited servings though!
Making up for a less cultural programme yesterday, we’ve got two very historic sites lined up today: first, the 400-year-old Ritsurin gardens, a stunning example of Japanese landscaping. It’s a short stroll from our hotel and we get there bright and early, with still a chill in the air. The large landscaped park is quiet at this time and we peacefully stroll through manicured paths, taking in centuries-old trees, pretty wood pavilions, and alleys of sakuras. Further in, a series of ponds, beautiful bridges and grassy knolls make a pretty background for the path to weave around and over.
We make our way to a small tea-house right by the central lake. It has just opened and we are right on time for a mid-morning snack of whipped macha tea and a chestnut bun - a just-sweetened pastry which is already a firm favourite of mine. You can buy them in most reputable combinis but savouring one on a sunny bench looking out onto the perfectly composed landscape is another experience! Ollie struggles to pry me from my contemplation.
One last look from a pretty arched bridge, and it’s time to move on to our next destination: the Konpira-San shrine in the small neighbouring town of Kotohira. The shrine is thousands of years old and a key stop on the famed Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage, a Japanese brother to the Camino de Compostella. We, however, won't be walking all the way - we make good use of our precious Japan Rail pass and take a short local train through the suburbs of deceptively large Takamatsu.
Kotohira station is very quiet and we take our time to enjoy traversing the little town. It’s a lovely blue day - good for us since even without trekking all the way there, the temple is at the top of more than 700 steps (with an optional 500 more for the braves who want to see the inner sanctum). In spring, it’s a popular destination for the island residents as the steps are overshadowed by bowers of sakuras, and as we get close to the temple approach the street gets busier, with souvenir shops popping up all along the sides.
The first flights of stairs duck and weave between stalls selling prayer tablets, scrolls and temple bells. As we progress, we start getting a few views back over the city but more interesting, we soon come to an extremely lovely section of the path: hemmed by stone tablets inscribed with the name of temple patrons and under a vault of arched sakura branches, it’s an enchanting climb and we barely feel the steps.
We soon get to a first few buildings dotted about the mountain slope: intricate woodwork, beautiful statues and yet more pink blossoms coating everything in a fairytale haze. Then, a short section through an ancient forest and we finally make it to the main temple. It’s a small complex of two-storey buildings with the characteristic intricate wood carvings of Shinto shrines, and we spend some time admiring it from a respectful distance.
We’re one of very few tourists here - while there are plenty of visitors, most of them seem to be from Shikoku itself and we don’t want to disturb. While the climb up was a real treat - maybe even more impressive than the temple itself - we’re not quite up to the second leg of 500 additional steps through the forest to the inner shrine. We’re content with admiring the views down the slope to the Seto sea, and soaking up the atmosphere on our slow way down.
It’s a relaxed stroll back to the station and then back to Takamatsu on the train. We walk back to our hotel through the arcade and take the opportunity to pop back into the same supermarket as yesterday for another ready-meal feast. Tomorrow we’ll go to an actual restaurant for food, we promise!
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