During my stay in Matsuyama I visited the Dogo Onsen, which is one of Japans oldest hot springs and also partially inspiration behind the bath house in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
Unfortunately, like a handful of places I tried or did visit during my trip, it is partially under construction. The upstairs which is the bigger private bath and the emperors bath is being redone, but the public bath was still open so I opted for that. The bath itself was not to impressive (best onsen I have been to was after temple 12 in the mountains in Kamiyama) The bath was small with only one pool of water with showers on the outside ring. It could only fit a handle full of people . The water was nice though. I would like to see the private baths as I have heard they are much larger and nicer. In the future then.
The cool thing about Dogo Onsen is the street that it is on. Around it there is cobble stone that wraps around it and no cars are allowed to drive on it. This makes a pleasant experience where you can walk around and enjoy the area, which has restaurants and shops. I went during the day and went back at night to enter the hot spring.
During the day as I went down from the last temple I visited the Dogo Onsen park right next to it. I decided before seeing the onsen to have lunch in the park. Check out the pictures below.
There was supposed to be a castle at the top of the hill in the middle of the park, but it must of been where it used to sit, as the only thing that was up there was a tall observation tower. Over there you can see Matsuyama castle, which has a large park surrounding it.
Dogo Onsen. The front part is uncovered, but the back has scaffolding and they are hard at work to get it ready for the Olympics.
Place I ended going during the night after my bath.
Hotel right behind the Dogo Onsen.
Totoro Store
They have a clock that has figures that come out and perform at different times.
A really neat area. It was not as packed as I thought it would be at night though. I would like to return to see the other baths when they get done.