Shikoku

Wow, it's been a while - can't believe I haven't written anything since the Osaka posting. We have been at my grandma's house and access has been a bit difficult as also we tried to pack in as much as possible before leaving for Hong Kong.

Well, after chilling out with my grandma and looking at old pics and around the house and garden, we spent the rest of the first day basically eating or being forced to eat more. It was a bit tiring to be honest, but as soon as my grandma sees you put any kind of food in your mouth, she thinks she has to find something else for you and something else and something else again!

Anyway, we then decided that the three of us would spend the following day looking around Takamatsu, the capital of Kagawa prefecture (where she lives) and we visited the old castle that has been built along the coast and fills its moats with saltwater directly from the sea. It's kind of cool, because you see all these fish in the moat having a good time and all these Japanese people watching them and drooling at all that fresh 'sushi'!

We also wandered around the castle gardens which are very beautiful and traditional in style and then made our way over to the best Udon noodle restaurant in the country. Well, it's kind of out of the way and it took us ages to get there, but boy was it worth it! It was so yum, I couldn't believe it! The three of us tucked in and munched our way through a massive portion and ended up so stuffed, we had to walk it off in one of Japan's most celebrated gardens - Ritsurin Koen.

It was first built as a summer retreat for some kind of feudal lord, but is now a big park open to the public and is set against a mountain at the edge of the city. The name Ritsurin actually means a wood of chestnut trees, but there are none in the garden. The story goes that one of the lords was shooting some deer or so with his bow and arrow in the park and one of the chestnut things fell on his head, so he got annoyed and had all the chestnut trees in the park chopped off. (Talk about a temper...) Anyway, his vassals then asked what they should plant instead and he said "give me a minute to think about it" but they misunderstood him and thought he had said he wanted pine trees. (Don't ask me to explain, I think it's a japanese joke. I don't get it either) So they planted lots of pine trees instead and it's very beautiful nonetheless.

That was our day in Takamatsu. Long live the udon noodle! Phil sent a batch home - I hope you like them, too.