Dogo Onsen Shopping Arcade
The Botchan Karakuri clock
I just wanted to separate this post from the original Dogo Onsen post as it was getting a little long. The area is like a mini onsen resort town as there are hotels, restaurants and souvenir stores for those staying in the area.
Directly opposite of the Dogo Onsen station and to the right of the shopping arcade main entrance is the Botchan Karakuri clock. The clock puts on a show that runs every hour normally but will also run every 30 minutes during the weekends, holidays and special occasions. I managed to catch one of the shows on the way back one afternoon as a crowd of people was waiting for the next performance to begin. The performance is about 3 minutes long and fairly interactive considering that everything it needs is from within the clock.
Ever wanted to try a fugu tasting course?
Some of the more interesting things that I saw when I was walking around included this restaurant serving a 3 course tasting menu with Japanese fugu ‘puffer fish or ‘blow fish’ as their main ingredient. I originally posted this on my Instagram account back in December 2022 when I was there as it was too good to pass up. It reminded me of the Simpson’s episode of when Homer thinks he is going to die because he has eaten an incorrectly prepared fugu dish.
Fugu is something I have not tried yet in Japan. A lot of people would say that it is bland tasting so I am not sure. There are many different ways to use fugu so it does not need to be just sashimi. Most of its notoriety is due to the fact that fugu is a poisonous fish and a person can potentially die when eating it. Not a pleasant thought but fugu is usually prepared by a licensed chef so the chances is quite low. Its not every day that you hear someone passing away from eating it in Japan on the news.
This particular restaurant called Oidenka is servicing the 3 course tasting menu for 5000 yen but also has two additional ‘packages’: One is an ‘all you can drink’ 90 minutes (excluding sake) option for 6500 yen (+1500 yen extra) and the other includes a bottle of sake for 7000 yen (+2000 yen extra). Reservations must be made two days in advance which was unfortunate as I have a boat to catch and would be leaving for Kyoto and would not get a chance to try it.
Some of the other curiosities are the egret (type of heron) motif that is part of the history of Dogo Onsen. It is bird that adorns the top of the Botchan Karakuri clock as well as the Dogo Onsen Annex ‘Asuka no Yu’ building.
In one of the souvenir stores, there are some interesting vaccum sealed food packages. The food are fully cooked so its possible to just buy a bowl of rice from a convenience store and make a meal of it if you did not want to go out.
There is also a Ghibli store inside the shopping arcade as Dogo Onsen Honkan (main building) is one of the inspirations used in Ghibli’s movie ‘Spirited Away’ in English or ‘千と千尋の神隠し’ in Japanese.
Taimeshi
Matsuyama has a few local specialities and one of them is ‘taimeshi’. Taimeshi is a type of meal that steams sea bream on top of rice in a clay pot. The restaurant that I went to is called Matsuyama Taimeshi Aka Dougo which is right beside the main entrance to the shopping arcade. Unfortunately, the website is only in Japanese, but the restaurant does have English explanations in their menu along with pictures.
The meal comes with the taimeshi in a separate clay pot. The rest of the condiments and side dishes are on a separate tray. On the table, are instructions on how to best enjoy eating it.
The first thing it tells you is to mix the fish and the rice together. Next, is to scoop a small portion into the separate rice bowl, add condiments and enjoy. When you are almost done, you can add some broth into your bowl, scrape any hardened rice on the side or bottom, and add more condiments to enjoy the last part of the meal.
Along with the meal, I also ordered an orange mikan flavoured beer. The beer tasted like a Belgium wheat beer with an orange slice. Ah, the taste of Summer (6 months early).
Mikan
Matsuyama is one of the largest producers of mikan oranges in Japan. Also, being close to the holidays when I went in December 2022, they were sold everywhere as well. I bought the two orange jelly drinking packs from the Matsuyama Airport Orange Bar when I arrived the other day. They were quite tasty and easy to carry around.
That’s my little summary of the area around Dogo Onsen. Next, is Matsuyama Castle.
