We had a couple of nights in Dogo Onsen which is named after one of Japan’s oldest and most famous hot springs located to the east of central Matsuyama.

The journey to Matsuyama was interesting as we had to cross from mainland Honshu to the island of Shikoku on the Great Seto Bridge which connects over six small islands in the Seto Inland Sea. The bridge ranks as the world’s longest two-tiered bridge system at 13.1km. It carries four lanes of road traffic on the upper deck and two lanes of rail traffic on the lower deck. We had great views from the train but you can also cycle across the bridge which would be just amazing from the top deck.

It is an easy tram car ride from Matsuyama train station to the old fashioned looking Dogo Onsen station, if a bit screechy on the brakes.

We stayed at Chaharu, a traditional Japanese hotel and had a dinner bed and breakfast package.

There were few other western tourists and it seems popular with Japanese who come to bathe in the onsens. Both meals were buffet style with lots of tasty Japanese options.

Many people came to the meals dressed in the yukatas, haoris (a jacket worn over the yukata) and clogs supplied by the hotel for bathing. Service was very attentive and the Maitre D’ even found me some Japanese wine. They put out the bedding while you are at dinner. The futon and pillow were bumpy but surprisingly comfortable.

I enjoyed my Japanese bath on the 10th floor of our hotel but wasn’t brave enough to try the public Dogo Onsen. I had it all to myself after dinner on our first night and experienced the rose strewn tub on our second night even though it wasn’t a Friday, Saturday or Sunday as advertised.

Matsuyama castle is definitely worth a visit and it’s a lovely walk from Matsuyama city. It is only one of 12 remaining castles in Japan built before the Edo period. Matsuyama takes its name from ‘matsu no yama’ which means ‘pine-covered hill’ and refers to the wooded area below the castle. We took the cable car down because the chair list looked too scary!

We found the downtown shopping arcades of Okaido and Gintengai disappointing although they feature in all the tourist information but did meet a nice shopkeeper in one of the designer dress shops who offered us Japanese sweets.

We had lunch in the Flying Scotsman cafe but ordered way too much food – hamburger sandwich and a speciality which was a double-layered Japanese cake and dish of coffee. Lucky they also do take away!

We much preferred shopping in the local shops and found some lovely imari (Japanese cotton) products. We also tasted some orange products as oranges seem to be a speciality of the Ehime region and had some delicious chocolate-coated sweet potato straws!