matsuyama-okayama-osaka

Being a history buff, Satoshi was interested in visiting the Saka no Ue no Kumo Museum.

The novel (Saka no Ue no Kumo) was written by Ryotaro Shiba and introduces several characters who were natives of Matsuyama in the Meiji Era and illustrated that with hard work, anything is possible.

Having not read the book or seen the television drama, I walked through the museum and just soaked in the atmosphere and architecture, which by the way was designed by Tadao Ando (a well-known architect from Osaka).

On the property is also Bansuiso, a French-style structure built in 1922 by a descendant of the Lord of the Matsuyama Clan.

Inside, they were holding a tsubaki (camellia) exhibit.

The camellia is the city flower.

I appreciated that their street cars all had wifi access.

One interesting thing we tried were mikan onigiri by Tamaya.

We got one beef and one chicken.

Both were so tasty! the beef and chicken were tender and the combination of sweet, salty was delicious.

I've tried twice to re-create this already, and think I am getting close to posting about it...

As we walked to the birth home of the Akiyama brothers (residents of Matsuyama that were written about in "Saka no Ue no Kumo"), there was a line outside of a sweets shop, Kiri no Mori.

While Satoshi went to check out the brothers house, I stood in line for these...Kiri no Mori daifuku.

Pillowy soft mochi, sweet bean paste & whipped cream...dusted with matcha powder....mmm!

I'm glad I got one for each of us!

We also tried Botchan Dango...Botchan is a character in the novel of the same name, written by Natsume Soseki, a novelist who lived Matsuyama.

These were really soft bean pastes, not too much taste...meh!

Pon Juice...I've written about this juice here.

I also came across this nice sized bag of brussels sprouts for only 100 yen!

It took a little over 3 hours to get from Matsuyama to Okayama then another hour on the Shinkansen to take us back to Osaka.

At least the weather was nice and we were able to see what we wanted to.

Hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.

Tamaya
6-13 Dogo-yunomachi
Matsuyama, Ehime
Phone: 089.915.5014

Kiri no Mori
3-3-1 Okaido
Matsuyama, Ehime
Phone: 089.934.5567
Closed Mondays
Hours: 10:00-19:00