Vaucluse Dreamer

Our little parking spot, at the entrance to Kanba Falls worked really well last night, and we had a peaceful night’s sleep, with the mountain stream running behind us. We even managed to find the holy grail of vanlife in Japan – a rubbish bin!

We woke this morning, and had breakfast, before walking up the path to the entrance to the Falls, which opened at 8.30, perfect for our love to get going every day.

It was a lovely walk up the path, with the stream babbling down the hill, alongside us, and we kept an eye open for the wild monkeys that live in the forest there, hoping to spot them. But this time they didn’t show their faces.

We paid the entrance fee (300 yen each – £1.50), and wandered up through the woodland towards the waterfall. There is an area, about half way up the trail, where there is a monkey feeding-station. Apparently there are approximately 160 monkeys in the area, which have been subject of studies since the 1950s.

Today though, there was a sign saying that they were up on the mountain, so we missed out.

We then had a first sight of the waterfall, which is considered to be one of the top 100 in Japan, and it was a dramatic sight. At approximately 100 metres high and 20 metres wide, the water tumbles down the edge of the cliff, with an almost deafening roar.

You can see A little video of the falls here

It was certainly the grandest waterfall that we’ve seen so far, and we stood admiring it for a while, in the peace of the early morning, before other visitors arrived.

Near the entrance, we had read a story on a board in a small shrine dedicated to love, success and healing of illness. It seemed to tell the story of Princess Teruhime, who had been sickly since birth and was taken to see the autumn leaves at Kanba Falls. There, she met a young man called Seikai, and after meeting a few times, the pair fell in love. But he was the son of a Feudal Lord, and she was a Princess, so their love was doomed.

The pair threw themselves into the pool at the base of the falls, and from what we could make out, they survived and he was allowed to be with her (at least we think that is what it said). It had the sense of a Japanese Romeo and Juliet.

As we walked back, we followed the signs to the Demon’s Cave, which appeared to be a cleft in a rock. It turned out to be at the top of a steep climb, up over 320 steps, some with a grab-chain to help us up.

It turned out out to be much more than a simple cleft in the rock, and was a winding tunnel, that twisted around itself in the cliff, with tall chambers carved out by ancient waterways. With a central chamber, it was easy to understand why it was called Demon’s cave, it had the feel of a mythical Dragon’s Lair. Rather wonderful, and definitely worth the climb up the steps (even at 9am)!!

Steps turned out to be the theme of the day, as we had chosen to stop at Bitchu Matsuyama Castle, on our drive today. This is an incredible castle, that sits on the summit of Mount Gagyu, a peak, high above the town of Takahashi.

Not only is it one of only 12 remaining, original castles in Japan, but it is (at 430m), the highest in the country too. And more importantly has a ‘Cat Lord’, so how could we even consider not stopping off, when we were on our way towards Shikokhu.

Driving the campervan, we are rather limited in some of the parking areas that we can access, so decided to head to the shuttle bus car park, where there seemed to be plenty of space, and hopefully we would be able to park, after yesterday’s experience of the Public Holiday.

There is a little shuttle bus, which runs to the upper car park, every 15 minutes and we decided to catch it, rather than walk up from there, as we had read that even the climb up from there was a bit ‘interesting’

Happily, when we arrived, we were guided through to the main carpark by the attendants, found a space and after lunch, paid the 500 yen each (£2.50) for the return shuttle bus to the start of the path up to the castle

After being dropped off at the start of the trail to the castle, we realised that the morning’s climb to the Demon’s Cave had been a gentle uphill stroll. The path here just kept climbing, with steep sections of concrete, interspersed with flights of steep stone, and rock steps.

It was quite a walk, but another one of those that has to be done, to really help us appreciate the position the castle was in and how hard it would have been to attack from below.

This is our third castle visit and it proved to be our favourite so far.

It’s a huge site, stretching across the mountain top, with vast fortifications that must have seemed overwhelming to any attacking forces, and a stunning castle keep, at the heart of it.

It was originally built in 1240, and was a defensive fortress and only had 2 stories, which was apparently typical for mountaintop castles of the period. And since it was built, it has changed hands many times, although remained in one family for 5 generations, between 1362 and 1504.

In 1566, it was only taken after 80,000 warriors defeated the incumbent family, and after seeing the position that the castle holds, it is easy to understand that it would need that number of forces to attack it, successfully.

It was finally, partially destroyed in the post-feudal Meiji period, and the rest was abandoned and fell into disrepair. In 1929, a group of local citizens was established, and the restoration work began.

It has clearly been a labour of love and has taken considerable skill and many artisans to restore it to its current state. The woodwork in the keep is beautifully done and it is a stunning piece of architecture.

Inside, there are a number of displays on its history and the complex renovation process, which was always going to be a challenge, when the castle is 430m up a steep, unmade track. Truly fascinating and testament to the commitmant of everyone involved in the restoration work.

After changing hands so many times, the castle now has a new Lord. A rather lovely marmalade and white cat, called Sanjuro. When I had read that the castle had a ‘Cat Lord’, I imagined it may be a bit like the Ravens at the Tower of London, that if they leave, London will fall.

However the story isn’t that old, and in fact, only dates back to 2018, when the cat, ran away from its owner after torrential rains had caused floods and landslides in the area. He was found over 40 days later, living in the castle and workers started to feed him. He settled in, and in December 2018, he was installed as the Lord of the Castle and certainly seems to lord over his land now.

He is an incredibly gentle cat, that loves to be petted and is happy to simply luxuriate in the attention he gets with his position.

So we indulged him and paid our respects, when we arrived and before leaving too.

By the time we walked back down to the bus-stop, the bus was just leaving, so we continued to walk back down the road to the main car park, and back to the van.

All that was left to do was to find an onsen, which we needed after a humid day, involving climbing many hundreds of steps, after which, we were on our way towards Shikokhu

We’ve stopped tonight, just before the start of the bridges over to the island, and our breath was taken away by the sight of the vast structures glowing against the sunset

And the mountains of Shikoku were layered out before us.

We’ve been so keen to get to the island, and it’s hard to believe that we will cross onto it tomorrow. We have so much to explore there, over the coming couple of weeks, and just can’t wait to start.