Matsuyama

There are little isolation booths at the station that you can rent and use your laptop at a little standing desk if you need to work with a little more privacy than just plonking yourself at Starbucks

This is a local train, for local people.

The train goes through the countryside for a while

and then proceeds along the inland coast

a smaller welcome

more tram cars, which I caught from the main station to the place I was staying

Dogo Onsen tram station is an old wooden building, that has been converted into a Starbucks.

There's an old train (that has been refurbished to run on diesel and pour steam instead of smoke out of the stack) that runs on the tram lines on weekends, and is parked at the Onsen station during the week.

The Ryokan I stayed at

The Onsen at the Ryokan was closed due to Covid, which was dissapointing

The room was still quite nice

There were some public onsens that were still open, this one was decorated with a bunch of flower related stuff, that I think tied in to an arts festival that was on at the moment. 

You were supposed to get dressed to go to the onsens at your hotel and wander over with a little basket with your towel in it and so forth.

There was a shrine above the town

Dogo Onsen Honken is undergoing repairs and maintenance work that require the roof tiles to be removed, so the entire structure has been covered b a scaffold  

there is an area where you can soak your feet in the hot spring waters and view the town 

The Onsen from ground level. This building was the inspiration for the bath house in Spirited Away 

A nearby statue where you can soak your feet in the hot spring waters

(there's also a coffee shop around the corner where you can buy a coffee and soak your feet in the hot spring waters in a foot bath in the store while you drink your coffee)

this cat is part of the Art festival

The nearby gardens

The clock next to the foot bath above is lit up at night

The flower themed bath house

The living area in the Ryokan where breakfast is served

After chatting with the owner of the Ryokan at breakfast he said that even though it was theoretically closed due to Covid, if I wanted to use the Onsen in the Ryokan I could.

It is also fed from the hot spring.