Matsue at three in the afternoon, the castle town most trains pass through

Matsue sits on the San'in coast with a lake on one side and a lagoon on the other, and the limited express from Okayama often arrives half empty. Most travellers who reach Shimane are aiming at Izumo Taisha and treat this town as a place to sleep. It is worth a full day, and it is at its best around three in the afternoon, when the light comes off the water sideways and the tea rooms are still open.

A moat you cross by boat, bent double

The Horikawa (horikawa, 堀川) canal still loops the castle, and small flat boats run the circuit in under an hour. Several bridges sit so low that the roof has to be folded down; the boatman says so in advance, the canopy drops to about knee height, and every passenger bows forward into their own lap until the stone passes overhead. Herons hold position in the reeds. Back gardens lean out over the water with their laundry poles still up.

Tea at an hour the itineraries skip

Matsue was governed by a daimyo who took tea seriously, and the habit never left. Matcha with a wagashi is served in ordinary places here, not only in temples, and refusing the sweet is not really an option. Meimei-an (meimei-an, 明々庵) is a thatched tea house on a rise above the old samurai lane at Shiomi Nawate, a few hundred yen, shoes off, the castle keep framed by the window at the far end of the mat.

湯の沸く音だけが、その部屋の時間を刻んでいる。

The temple with the stone tortoise

Gesshō-ji (gesshoji, 月照寺) holds the tombs of nine lords behind nine separate gates, each one older and mossier than the last. In the grounds stands a large stone tortoise carrying a memorial pillar on its back, and Lafcadio Hearn, who taught in Matsue for fifteen months, recorded the local belief that it wandered at night to drink. Hydrangeas fill the paths in June. On a weekday afternoon you may be the only person there, which is roughly the point.