Summer holiday in Shikoku 四国 (day 5 - 17th August 2011)

Since we stayed in the dormitory type accommodation, we just left, don't need to check out. After that, we went to Sannomiya 三ノ宮 station to pick up another friend. She just came from Tokyo using night bus. Then, we proceeded to Tokushima 徳島. Our main aim was to see the whirlpool in Naruto 鳴門 and the best time was between 13:30 to 14:30. So, we went to Awaji Yume Butai 淡路夢舞台. There was a national park called Akashi 国営明石海峡公園. We went to this park first because it was too early to go to Naruto. It was a big flower park. A lot of flowers, very colourful! We walked one round and left. 

the flower's octopus from Akashi park

Flowers

the flower bird

small fountain

like the rabbit

segments of flower, the best view is in spring

Then, we drove to Naruto, first, we wanted to eat lunch at the pier of Uzushio Kankosen cruise 渦潮クルーズ. However, there were too many people waiting. Plus, the cruise would start in an hour. So, we just ate something light, Takoyaki 章魚焼. In the pier, a shop was selling something special, Onion flavour ice cream. Being an adventurous traveller, I tried that. Honestly, it was not bad, just the onion powder added was quite difficult to swallow.

saw a big Buddha (i think) statue on the way to Naruto

Onion ice cream

After that, we noticed that people started to queue up. So, a few of us went to queue up first, while some went to the toilet. We were surprised that it have been a long queue. There were two decks on the ship. All full of people. I am short, so with all the people on the deck, I could hardly see anything, not to mention even the kids were taller than me. So, I squeezed and squeezed into crowd and finally standing on the edge. When the ship was nearing the whirlpool, it was not stable, quite scary. However, the whirlpool was magnificent. Close encounter, hahaha! There was another way to see this, from the bridge. However, seeing all this from the ship was more interesting!

whirlpool (Naruto)

After that, we rushed to the Tokushima 徳島. We had to reach before 4pm to see the Awa Odori 阿波おどり. If we missed that show, we would have to wait for the night show. We reached there just 5 minutes before 4pm. We quickly bought tickets and entered the hall to see the performance. Actually, the Awa dance festival was from 12 to 15 August. But, we had to bypass this due to time and location management. The show was about the dance steps and the meaning. I did not like the music and the sound though, it gave me a creepy feelings. The sound was like the one the Taoist priest made during the ceremony for the dead. After I told my friend about this, she told me that the dance was for the dead. No wonder!

Awa odori museum

the dance

After that, we went to find Tokushima Ramen. However, the first shop we went refuse us because he said our group was too big. Then, we went to another shop, they were still preparing. Next, all the shops already reached closing time or closed already. Weird, I thought that maybe Tokushima people ate this ramen during lunch time only, not for dinner. So, we went to Izakaya 居酒屋 to have our dinner. It was not so expensive compared to Kumamoto. After averaging, one person around 2000 yen, and most my friends drunk alcohol.

We stayed at the Izakaya quite long, then only we left to go to the guest house. It was a long night.  We were accompanied by the smell of fertilizer the whole night because the guest house was next to the paddy field, one of my friend claimed that it was cow dung, however, we didn't know the truth, so, just said that it was fertilizer. Not only we had to sleep with that, the owner tried very hard to squeeze as many people as he could, he even placed 2 people in the balcony, and the room next to the balcony, 4 people, and the room next , 4 more people. All the rooms were separated by a bamboo door and it was not closed. Our space still considered ok because in another separate small room, he squeeze 5 people inside. The worst was there was no air conditioner and only 2 small stand fans for 10 people, can you imagine that, it was summer! It was so hot and smelly. Since there was only one bathroom, all of us have to queue up to take bath. So, we left the guest house as early as possible the next morning at 5.30am.

Day 1: Matsue
Day 2: Sakaiminato
Day 3: Tottori
Day 4: Okayama
Day 5: Tokushima (Shikoku)
Day 6: Shodoshima (Shikoku)
Day 7: Oboke & Kochi (Shikoku)
Day 8: Ehime
Day 9: Onomichi