5/4 Kashima

There is a small island off the coast of Hojo town in north Matsuyama, and it's part of the Seto Inland Sea National Park. It's name comes from the large population of deer that live on the island (ka = deer; shima = island). I invited Kim Yoogon, but two new exchange students as well. One was Mira from Romania, and Wu from Guangdong, China.

We met up at Matsuyama station, and only took the train 20 minutes north to what seemed to be a small, older station. It was really nice weather, and when we arrived it seemed as if we were in a ghost town. Nevertheless all we had to do was walk straight for about ten or fifteen minutes until we arrived at the Kashima Ferry terminal. To enter the terminal parking lot you have to pass under a large, white, torii gate. There were dozens of people there dressed in firefighter volunteer uniforms, and were weaving a long rope. It was the second day of the Kashima Festival, meaning we missed the main event, so today they were weaving a long rope to connect to rocks way out in the sea.

We each paid our round-trip fee of around 500 yen or $3.50 and waited for the deer-decorated ferry to arrive. We only rode it for two minutes but it was still fun and super windy. 

At the first stop on the island, we took pictures of some deer and fed them. We went towards the beach area and took great pictures of everything, but even though the weather was nice, it wasn't warm enough to go into the water. We saw more deer towards the back, and there was ample open area to have a barbecue or any kind of sport activity. We found a certified "forest-bathing" path and went up it. Straight to the top! There was an observation deck which we climbed up and had a great view. It was kind of funny cause it's supposed to be "romantic" and so we poked fun at that. We got to see some skinks which were cool.

Then we walked over to the fancy, over-priced, over-the-water restaurant. The buildings seemed kind of old, which made more sense we found old pictures from the 60's showing what the park used to look like. All of the buildings were brand new and you were able to walk all the way around the island. Now you can only walk so far in each direction. We walked out to the jetty to see the light, and the further we went out the deeper the water got next to us. Yet even then it was so clear that you could see all the way to the bottom. The wind picked up a little bit and one of my classmates walked on top of the windbreaker wall on the jetty, which made me nervous.

At around 12:30 we were done and boarded the ferry back to the main island. This meant we had seen everything in a time span of about 2 and a half hours. We walked back, and next to the station was a homemade curry place called "Curcova." The owner was just sitting there reading the paper when we walked inside, and then he jumped to serve us. It must've been a very leisurely day in Hojo.

When we were all done we walked around the marina to see the "Kashima Shrine" which really turned out to not have anything, and was stationed behind some big factories. We went back to the station, and that was it.