Well, I guess it was bound to happen. Everyone and I mean everyone is coughing their lungs up around here and no matter how vigilant we have been – wearing masks on public transport, washing hands every 2 seconds etc etc it was inevitable I guess that one of us would come down with the dreaded lurgy. This time it is Steve’s turn. He started getting a sore throat last night and wasn’t feeling so great today. It’s pretty annoying because as we all know being sick sucks and being sick when you are away from home sucks even more. He’s doing ok at the moment, we are hoping it clears up quickly as we have a bike ride to do!!!!

So today I left Steve at the hotel to rest and went out to explore. This city has a castle and I needed to see it! The weather was a bit more friendly today – still overcast but no rain at least.

Our hotel is within walking distance to the cable car and chair lift to the castle so I wandered on over and looked at so shops and saw some things I might need to buy later on.

There were three options for getting up the mountain – walking, chair lift or cable car. I opted for the chair lift because it was equally the coolest and the scariest. Just a single seat with no bar for security or anything. Sounds good to me!

At the top of the lift, I enjoyed a Mikan icecream.

There were lots of Sakura blooming in the castle grounds. It wasn’t too busy with people either which is always nice. I slowly walked up to the castle while enjoying the views.

Matsuyama castle was built in 1603 and is one of only 12 castles in Japan that are original. Very cool indeed. I went inside to check it out. There were many very steep steps. I got to go all the way to the top.

I walked around the grounds a bit and tried to take some photos of myself 🤣

The grounds were really nice – lots of trees and flowers.

Steve sent me a message to say that he had gone out to eat lunch and was eating an amazing fish ramen, so I decided to get back on the chair lift and head down the mountain and meet him there because it sounded far too delicious to miss out on.

It was the delicious indeed. A light broth made from konbu and fish. I finished the entire bowl!

After lunch I went and did a bit more shopping. I bought some towels, because they were really nice and made in nearby Imabari. And a Mikan juice.

Then time for a coffee at Ro Ro Coffee. I got this huge mug of Bolivian coffee and I made the owner and a customer laugh saying I was going to be riding the Shimanami Kaido “Yukkuri” (slowly) on a “Mama char” (mum chariot – bikes with baskets basically)

Saw our heron friend again. Had a brief look at the park we walked through yesterday in the rain. It looked nicer today in the *almost* sunshine. Walked up some more steep stairs to a temple as well.

Actually those stairs don’t even look steep in this photo, but trust me, they were.

Bought some bento and croquettes for dinner and headed back to the hotel. That was about it really!