Can I Eat a Fried Egg with Chopsticks?

That’s the title of my book that I’m going to write by the way, in case you were wondering. So don’t go stealing it because I have dibs on it.

Breakfast at our ryokan this morning. I think I was still full from dinner the night before…but breakfast was exquisite- complete with ocean views. There only seemed to be one other family staying here.

We didn’t really want to leave this place but onwards we must travel!

We had a park at the top of a mountain with 1000 cherry trees in full bloom to see.

But first, a stop off at a “Eki no Michi” (roadside stop – kinda like a truck stop I guess, but good) for a Mikan juice, lemon cake (that cost $1) and touch of the ocean. Always got to touch the water wherever I am in the world!

Quality cake for bargain basement price (made from local produce)

Then it was on to the park – the name of which I can never remember no matter how many times I look at it – Hirakiyama Park. Ok, got it? No I’ve forgotten it already. I was recommended this park by a customer in a cafe in Matsuyama. All the maps say it’s a tough ride to get to the top. “meh! How hard can it be?” Well let me tell you…if you are planning on going…maybe get an e bike. I think I nearly died getting up there. I walked half the way pushing my bike and hoping to hell it would be worth it. Steve did better considering he’s still getting over the stupid cold he caught. But he does ride his bike to work every day and as I mentioned yesterday – Covid+cold + (I forgot to mention) hip bursitis = an unfit me. Yeh I know excuses, excuses. Anyway all that matters is we made it to the top, and maybe I did die getting there because let me tell you it was like a dream up there. Sakura in full bloom as far as the eye could see! So beautiful! So magical!

Here are some photos but it’s really hard to capture it properly.

I’ve got about 2000 more photos but I think that will do for now – if you want to see more then just ask me.

Riding down the mountain was a lot more fun and quick then going up it.

We had a plan to get to a coffee place that called Shimanami Coffee that I have been stalking on Instagram since 2020. We still had to get over another bridge to get there. On the way there we saw a strawberry farm – we stopped in for a look and saw they were selling strawberry sandos. Must have one of those. This was technically lunch.

After a bunch more kilometres and some gruelling up hill climbs – we found Shimanami Coffee.

We had coffees and lemon drinks and I had another lemon cake. It’s all about citrus around here.

Then, feeling rejuvenated after our beverages we headed onwards to our accommodation for the night. We had to cross over another huge bridge.

We made it to our accommodation around 4:30pm which I was very glad about as my legs had just about given up. Much to our surprise, the area around our accommodation was quite busy with lots of cute shops and cafes and our ryokan is AMAZING. Real old school traditional- this place has been here for like 100 years. It’s super cool.

We had a bit of a walk around town, but I was starving on account of only eating cake and cake like food all day so I had a bit of a headache. We had dinner booked at our ryokan again – and as always it was really, really good and there was sooooooo much food and now I never need to eat ever again. Except we are getting breakfast here tomorrow so I hope I am hungry again by then.