Shikoku Weekend: Day 1 Tokushima

My friend Meredith and I decided that we needed to get away and we saw the perfect opportunity arise as a three day weekend was fast approaching. We decided to go somewhere 'off the beaten path' that we hadn't been before. I have decided that I really can't come home until I visit the five main islands of Japan (Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, Hokkaido, and Okinawa). So far, I have managed to get myself to only two of those; Kyushu and Honshu ((where I live)). Upon this realization, we looked into going to Shikoku and seeing some of the beautiful natural things we had heard about.

We headed off early in the morning (well about 10 am due to the fact that the previous night was Halloween night). We caught the bus from Maiko station and took the Awaji bridge over across Awaji Island to Shikoku. On the bridge over the Naruto straight we were able to catch a quick glimpse of the famous Naruto whirlpools. Upon this, we decided that we would have to return to this location to get a closer look.

We arrived at Tokushima around 12pm and decided it would be best if we tried to find our hotel first so we could at least check in and have them hold our bags for us. After trying to check into the wrong hotel once (there are two hotels of the same chain within 1 km of each other) we finally found our new temporary place of residence very close to the ropeway. We left our bags and headed out to find something to eat. While we were walking, we noticed a bunch of street stalls selling food set up along the river. There were many children with balloons and raccoon hats, so we decided that this would be a perfect place for us. What is a better combination than funny hats, toys, and food?!

We still haven't quite figured out what this was, but we are thinking it was something to do with the environment. It was a festival complete with a stage where Power Ranger-esq super heros were battling it out on stage with an incredibly annoying woman with a high-pitched voice continuously yelling the equivalent of "fight fight..." wow. It was beyond annoying and the cringing on our faces carried over to the faces of all of the Japanese people around us. It was nice to know we were not alone.

We decided that we were going to try many different kinds of food, so first we headed to a local favorite, Pizza Hut. Haha. They had a stand set up and as a snack, mere and I decided that Pizza Hut would surely be the most delicious choice. There were no choices in toppings...and upon opening the box in hopes of having cheesy meaty deliciousness we were in complete shock-and-awe to see that our toppings were none other than potato, ham, corn, mayonnaise, and cheese. WHAT!? We managed to force this slice down and then hastily set off in search of something more gourmet. :(

After we got our raccoon hats, took some photos, got some balloons, and were given a giant bag of miso that the man insisted was "VERY EASY" to make, we headed to a local shopping center to get something warm to wear. You see, I had packed without checking the weather and I didn't realized that a cold front was going to be coming through. It was definitely one of those moments where you remember, just before walking out the door, you thought "hmm... should I bring my sweatshirt or a scarf? Nah...". I was kicking myself as I shelled out a few thousand yen for a new scarf and sweater. BOOOO. But the next day would prove to be much colder, so it was unavoidable.

We walked around a bit more and went back to the hotel to try to make plans for the next day. We were going to head out to the countryside and the middle of Shikoku Island. We knew we would have to get up early so we got all the information we would need, had sushi at a rotating sushi joint, and headed back to get our beauty sleep....

To be continued....