Matsue

Although it kind of ended in a sour note, Miyoshi was still ten times better than cycling through completely urban landscapes. It only got better though as I left for Matsue, since there was going to be a whole of 20 km or so of constant uphill! Aces! Well, at this point I really didn't mind about it and in retrospect, it felt good. However, so many people say about the army as well, yet they swore to rather be anywhere else while serving. And some people do like to get spanked, too, so it doesn't really justify my point. That is, cycling on roads with almost no traffic and surrounded by nature was just a great experience.

Doing the same thing in Hokkaido before had no such beauty to it, because I pretty much knew what to expect on those northern routes. Here, I had no clue, since I lacked the map. So I was pleasantly surprised at first to notice a road sign for waterfalls and immediately switched route there. I was even more surprised that there was no tourist resort built around the river which flowed from the said falls and there was just a single car parked on the lot. Even that left pretty soon after I arrived.

After getting off the bike, I went on the short hiking route up to the waterfalls. Pretty soon, I thought to be already there as a 20-meter waterfall was facing me after no more than 200 meters. I thought, "wow, it was worthwhile to come here" but noticed that the path went on, so I just kept on going up. Then another waterfall, and another, and so forth, until I was at the end of the road. At the end stood a two-stage waterfall, perhaps not so tall as the first I saw, but more beautiful on all other aspects. And it was not just the last waterfall which was beautiful, but the whole path through the area. While being there, I felt enchanted and stopped hurrying back on the road, although I knew all too well that lingering for too much would cost me a lot of time from Matsue. I'm glad I didn't mind, though, as I would have rather spent even a night there, had it been possible.

The rest of the route to Matsue was uneventful but as I finally arrived on the shore of the western lake Matsue is situated on, there was a storm about to arrive. Sure enough, I got soaked a few minutes after seeing the lake, but it passed quickly, only leaving strong winds behind.

In Matsue, I took a look at the castle which was the major attraction, but after Himeji-jo, it didn't feel so impressive. No other castle can, I suppose. Then, an important attraction was also supposed to be the fish from the lake, so I went to eat sashimi. Perhaps I chose a bad restaurant, but I honestly couldn't know a difference between the sashimi you get from a supermarket and this one. It was all the same to me, so I made a decision not to waste my money like that again, especially since getting one's stomach filled with just tiny slices of fish is pretty damn difficult. So I bought a Big Mac instead.

Such was Matsue - in the evening, the stormy winds calmed down a little but when I woke up next morning, they were still blowing from the west. Good for me, though, since I was headed east for Yonago and from there, to either Tottori or Okayama.