Ferry to rainy Tokushima - Awa Odori, Cannot Lookout, and whirlpools - Sun 6 May

We had a 4:30 wake-up to drive for a 5:50am ferry to Tokushima, on the island of Shikoku. This was atonement for all the times I slept in that bit too much and the temple was closed at the end of the day, for sure. It was raining heavily.



We slept on the floor of the ferry, in a carpetted but foot-odorous sleeping area that reminded me somehow of kindergarten. I made a shortlist from the guide book on attractions of interest.

On our arrival at around 8am, an attempt at booking a return journey proved fruitless - all the spots were taken, so we'd have to drive back via Osaka.

The tourist information was not open till 9am, so we had breakfast at Tully Cafe. With my breakfast, I enjoyed a green tea freezey, reminiscent of my Hawthorn Samurai restaurant green tea milkshakes of years past with Ashley and Emily.


After arming ourselves with maps and info on times and places, we walked to a museum near the station. The museum had a centuries-old canoe boat, some traditional "Where's Wally" paintings, and this guitar rocker and headbanger portrait.


Outside the museum was the Tenshuukaku Teien garden, the most beautiful traditional garden I've seen so far in Japan.


The pond (with rain falling into it).

I could easily have spent hours there, but we only had a few minutes up our sleeves before dashing off to catch an 11am Awa Odori dance performance. The performance clashed with the other puppet show attraction I'd hoped to see, and later puppet shows were at the same time as the whirlpool high tide 40 minutes away, so no puppet show - maybe somewhere else in Japan?

The dance was really interesting, and quite islander in its feel, sitting outside the bounds of my existing ideas of Japanese traditions. There were interesting hats, and the women wore a kind of forward high heel, with two-columns under the sole, tilted forward to dance on the balls of the feet. The guttural cry of "yyyYU!" and the crying chants of the women would be great in a club dance song! There was demonstration of the old style and new styles of the dancing, with cool poses struck at the end of the dances.

Here, the women's traditional dance.


In the final ten minutes of the forty minute performance, there was a call for audience participation, and a decent take-up. Naturally, I opted in. As the circle of dancing turned its way, I got leid with a chain of blue plastic flowers - it turned out this was a sign. I can proudly announce here that I was selected to receive a certificate for my Awa Odori dancing skills. Imagine, I was more than a little cheery.


There was an exhibit of Awa Odori artifacts. One of many period posters, this one is from 1964 - I thought it might be appreciated by David.


I was thrilled to find an Awa Odori version of what used to be a very popular arcade game in Japan, that I have not been able to find since arriving - 'Dance Dance Revolution'. My recently inflated ego pushed me to first try out the hard level first. Here, you see me encouraged onscreen to 'try a little harder' after altogether failing to get the point.


The ticket we bought included a trip up the ropeway. Halfway up, we entered the cloud that was raining on us further down, and could barely see twenty metres. I opted not to pay to use the binoculars.

We ate a cafe that was an affront to most senses - besides the smothering fog outside, the food was greasy and the TV was playing a wailing karaoke competition show.

We drove out to high tide at the whirlpools, and caught a boat out to see them up close.


They continually form and disperse over a period of an hour or more, as sea waters rush from two directions during tide changes.

The fog was still very thick, and the rain showed no sign of letting up.


But it was very atmospheric, even if less of a vista than you could normally expect.


After the boat, we walked the bridge above for a look through the glass floor windows.


Most of Awaji-shima was shrouded from us by fog as we drove through. Our plans for an onsen looking out at the longest suspension bridge in the world fell through when we missed the exit and found ourselves on said bridge. A U-turn proved prohibitively expensive, and we embarked on another tragicomedy-of-errors journey to find the highway again. A sequence of "This way? Oh, the wrong way?" was chimed out over several hops back to the highway, where we settled behind the safety of a bus headed our way.

We sped over skyway after skyway through the air, till it was almost surreal. After about three hours, we'd arrived back in Wakayama.

At my request, we popped in to a completely-unsaleable goods and second hand clothing store, where I found possibly the best Engrish tshirt I may find in Japan, unfortunately in female child size.


Though it now places a distant second, at first sight I couldn't get enough of this long sleeved top.


We headed to dinner at one of the chain that Take first took me to in Osaka, which had been absolutely delicious. This one didn't slip in standards.


When we arrived home, I packed my bags, as it turned out I wouldn't be able to have a recovery sleep-in and spend the day catching up on my blog at Take's place after all - his mum was going on a day's holiday, and I'd imagine a police life history would teach you not to leave unfamiliar folks in your house, however impressed you are with their cooking and nice Japanese skills.