Road trip with Darren Day 6

Today we spent driving around beautiful Ehime-ken admiring the stunning coast line & trying to find a place to camp but everywhere we found was full - it was beautiful weather & the whole country was on holidays, so it probably shouldn't have been so surprising.

We decided to head to Matsuyama City, the capital of Ehime-ken. This city was heaving & we stopped at the station to try a couple of hotels. They were full so we headed to the very unhelpful information booth. After waiting 10 minutes or so, in my politest Japanese I said hello & that I was looking for a hotel. Well you'd think I asked the guy for money or something, every time I opened my mouth he just shouted back "NO!" in English. So I asked (in Japanese), "is everything full?" he shouts "no, no, no" so I say "ah, there are vacancies?", he says "no, no, no" so I say "why are you saying 'no' to everything?" He keeps repeating his signature phrase & then starts waving his hand. It is so rare to receive such treatment in Japan & maybe he was having a bad day or maybe he hates gaijin, who knows!!!

We left Matsuyama City & headed for the expressway & joined the hundreds of others without accommodation & spent the night in Toppo (my car)!