Shodoshima is the largest island in the Seto Inland Sea, just off of Takamatsu City which is about 1.5 hours north of Naruto. We took a ferry over to this island, not knowing entirely what to expect. We had read about an olive grove and monkey park before going. We really lucked out with the weather. This was our view of the Seto Inland Sea during our ferry ride over to Shodoshima. The first one is Takamatsu City.
First we checked out the Peacock Garden which was a little piece of land full of palm trees and peacocks.
Next we ate lunch at a handmade somen restaurant. Somen are the thinnest Japanese noodles. Lunch was very delicious. The somen was served with ice cubes, green onions, and somen dipping sauce.
Then we wandered around the olive grove, the most famous place on the island. We found this to be the lamest place on the island because of the really fake ancient Greecian ruins, and the fact that it was really just an olive grove and several gift shops. Plus the gift shops didn’t sell any actual olives, only olive products like olive chocolate, olive oil, olive hand cream, olive candy drops, and hello-kitty-in-an-olive-costume figurines and towels. These were the silly ruins.
Next we took a ropeway up through the Kankakei gorge. The view was pretty amazing. We also tried some olive ice cream while we were at the top. It had a faint olive taste. Not too bad.
Then we went over to the Marukin Soy Sauce Museum.
We got a free bottle of soy sauce when we went into the museum. I had no idea how to make soy sauce before coming so I found the museum pretty interesting. First they roast the wheat. Then they add soy beans, mold, salt, and water. Then the soy sauce ferments for a year or longer! Before they ship it out, they cook it to burn off the alcohol and kill the yeast. We tried some soy sauce ice cream before we left. It really did taste like soy sauce, and it was surprisingly not gross. Not exactly delicious, but not bad. Anyways, apparently most soy sauces in the US are synthetic, or in other words, the soy part isn't fermented. The Japanese soy sauces I've had have always seemed much richer in flavor so I guess that would explain it.
On our way to see the monkey park, we saw this massive statue of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion and mercy. When we got closer we noticed it was a temple.
Sadly we didn’t have much time to spend at the monkey park, but we did see quite a few monkeys while we were there. They were eating ants and occasionally fighting with each other. There wasn’t a real fence around the park, so the monkeys could easily escape if they wanted to. We saw a few hanging out near the road far from the park, but the majority of them stay on the top of that mountain.
