Golden Week, Iya Valley, Shikoku

On the way to Shimonoseki Station my cab driver warned me about the task we were about to undertake. (a rough translation) "Regular mountains are like this," he said, putting his hands together, fingertips touching to make a right angle. "Shikoku mountains are like this," his hands now at 45 degrees. I was hungover and a little bit concerned, but not deterred.

I met Sally and Marko at Shin-Iwakuni, and we set off for Shikoku. We were ill prepared and terrible at reading Japanese maps, but eventually we found our way up to the top of some beautiful mountains.


On the first day, we had a nice walk and we saw a magical woodland creature that we named John. Later, Nori, a lovely guy who runs a guesthouse in the Iya valley, told us that it was a very rare type of deer (he has never seen one) that only lives near Tsurugi-san. We decided that it is still magical.