I set an alarm for 4am and went for another bath. Honestly, if I spent my two weeks in Japan in an onsen, I would be the happiest lady alive. I was the only one in the bath… until a staff member came in to check on the temperatures and turn the sauna back on. I went back to the room after and Jives woke up around 5:30am. He wanted to go to the onsen to soak, so back up to the baths we went! This time one lady came in and shared the bathing space.

We had green tea and packed up our stuff to head to the station at about 7:30am. We stopped at the Lawson to get some train snacks; a few onigiri, sandwiches and a hot Boss coffee. We then went to the station and caught our train at 9:08am. Many shinkansen passed through the station going full speed along the Tokaido Shinkansen line. The loud noise the trains made as they went by was terrifying. 

The first train from Kakegawa to Hamamatsu was very short. We journeyed one stop and got off at the next station, transferring to the Hikari to Okayama.  The portion of the ride was 2.5 hours. I felt pretty motion sick for some reason, which is rare for me. We arrived in Okayama at 12:02 and had to transfer quickly to the more local trains to catch the Marineliner from Okayama to Takamatsu. This train was mostly set up like subway cars except for one reserve car at the front that was two levels. We sat on the lower level, at eye level with the station platform (so weird). When we passed through stations, I was eye level with people’s feet!! 

This last train was super cool!! The train travelled over the Seto inland sea, passing over  little islands. The views were so amazing! 

We arrived in Takamatsu just after 1pm (the last portion of the train ride we saw so many olive trees, very unexpected). There was an Anpanman train just about to depart on the track next to us. We then got our photos with Anpanman himself (a statue)!! 

At the station we explored a little artisan area with local beers, hot sauces, and noodles. There seemed to be a lot of olive items. As we took the train through rural Takamatsu, I pointed out to Jives all of the olive trees. It must be a local specialty! We then stashed our bags in a locker and went to a sushi restaurant. 

We each ordered a sushi set at the restaurant , mine included red miso soup and some tempura on the side, Jives’ set had ramen with clams on the side. We each also had a Suntory beer. There was quite a wide variety of sashimi in the plate mixes! Delicious!

We then walked to our accommodation (there was an election rally going on at the station). It took about 15 minutes to walk to our Dormy Inn , just off a small shopping arcade. We checked in without issue and went up to the room. We checked the TV to see if the hotel onsen was full and it said “unoccupied” so we decided to go have a bath. Once again the bath was on the top floor. I washed and went into the indoor bath. Just as I was getting in, another lady entered the change room. The main bath was a decent size. The outdoor bath was small but MUCH hotter, but that is lovely when the air is so cold. I soaked for maybe 30 minutes, briefly going into the sauna, but it was so hot, like dangerous! Like the building was going to catch fire! It was heated by charcoal and it was very smokey and had a smokey smell. I LOVE a hot sauna, but I could barely touch the floor or sit on the sauna pads. 

I met Jives afterwards in the little manga library seating area, he was reading manga and the TV was playing Olympic figure skating. We went back to the room and dressed before heading out to check out some record shops nearby. 

First we headed to Tower Records which was a bit of a disappointment, very little vinyl. We briefly went to Loft and got some stickers and washi tape. We then headed to Roots Records which was a goldmine! It was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. This shop was insane! There were boxes of vinyl everywhere! I got three records, Zeppelin 2, Masaru Mada Rainbow Island and a group called “Guitar Work Shop” (which I think was a bunch of big Japanese jazz guitar names making a super group). Jives got ; Masaru Imada “Mint Breeze”, Masayoshi Takanaka “The Rainbow Goblins”, Hiroshi Suzuki “Cats”, Grover Washington Jr. “Feels so Good” and Kazumi Watanabe “Ta chi Ka”. We decided this was probably enough records for the day, so we headed back to the room via a 7-11. We also saw a weird astronaut cat sculpture on a building on the way back to the room. 

Back at the room we watched Olympic skating on Japanese TV before heading up for another back. Watching the Olympics in NOT your home country is such a trip. I honestly loved that we got to watch another countries’ perspective of the Olympic games! The bath was very full this time but lovely. I really could bathe five times a day and live in an onsen. We then called it a night at about 9pm.