Day 7: Off to the Island (Tokushima)

After getting a quick breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and took a long bus ride from Osaka to Tokushima, Shannon’s old stomping grounds. It was a little difficult to find the bus station from the train station, as there are a lot of different bus shelters and stops along the way, but we just barely made it before the bus departed (otherwise, it would have been an hour wait). Tokushima is one of the four prefectures on the Shikoku island, which is separate from Japan’s main island.

After arriving and checking in at the hotel, we got a quick lunch at Matsuya and then Shannon and I went off in search to find the apartment where she used to live. It had been a long while, but she found it pretty quick!

By Japanese standards Tokushima pretty rural but it’s probably close to London, Ontario in size. We did a little exploring and took a long hike by the water for the afternoon, and even found some cherry blossoms in bloom at a park before heading back to the hotel. We ended up walking 25 km, so we earned a feast.

We went out for a conveyor belt sushi dinner which is always a lot of fun. Afterwards, we walked around the local bar areas for a bit. I was being pretty indecisive and didn’t want to settle on any of the places we passed by, so before long we headed back to the hotel where we found a decent place nearby. It seems like a lot of places are closed Sunday, and last order is 9 at many too. I ended up ordering a local sake sampler, which was mostly really good, but one of them was described as having an ‘umami’ flavor, which was pretty unique – and maybe not in a good way, though I’m glad I tried it.

Day 8: Exploring Tokushima (Mount Bizan, Tokushima)

We found a little local coffee shop nearby that seemed to be run by a couple of older ladies. It had a great atmosphere and we enjoyed a quick breakfast there before heading out on a boat tour through a couple of the rivers running through the city. It was a beautiful day out and it was nice being on the water.

We had a little walk around the city and then went for some Tokushima-style Ramen. The shop we found was a little place run by an old couple. We were the only customers and got chatting for a bit with the owners. I remember asking them about what was special about Tokushima Ramen, and about their local accent. The husband was hard to understand, but we had a good time talking. They gifted us some Sudachi fruit from their garden as we were leaving, and the husband didn’t even want to take all my money, but I insisted.

We went up Mount Bizan on the ropeway. There was a beautiful view at the top. After enjoying some fresh mountain air, we hiked back down on a kinda steep difficult path. It was a lot of exercise and would have been really tricky going up. We finally got back to the streets and did a little shopping.

Had some Izakaya food for dinner including a soup-salad hybrid that was made at the table as well as some horse meat. It was really tasty. Back at the hotel, we went up to the top floor to check out the bar. It was fancy and pricey but we had a drink and enjoyed the night view. We got a little cheese tray, but as is standard in Japan, the cheese was expensive, small, and lacking. And only two crackers for like ten pieces of cheese! After soaking in the view, we went back down to somewhere a little cheaper.

Day 9: Shikoku Day Trip (Takamatsu)

We had some spring showers in the morning. We were planning to do a walk in Takamatsu but delayed it a little for the weather to calm down a bit. In the meantime, we returned to the nice little cafe we found yesterday.

Takamatsu was about an hour away by train. We got there in time for lunch and had some amazing udon, which they are famous for in that area. I was never a big udon person, but this turned me on to it in a big way.

We toured around a park called the Ritsurin Garden for a little bit. We were still a little early in the season for the full experience, I think, but it was pretty nonetheless. There were waterfalls, boat rides (we didn’t go this time), tons of fish and birds around.

After that, we walked to a castle park by the main train station. Both parks that day were nice and thankfully we managed to dodge the bad weather. After grabbing some tonkatau, we headed back to Tokushima, got the following day’s bus tickets settled, and went back to the basement bar in the mall next door to the hotel to finish off the evening.

Day 10: Headed to the Ryokan (Shizuoka)

After grabbing a bite to eat, we set off on a long journey to the Izu region in the Shizuoka peninsula. It was a long stretch of travel since we were heading from one remote-ish area to another. I’m pretty sure we didn’t have the correct fares on our original tickets (as we were transferring several times and it’s complicated) and I figured we’d settle it at the end, but we ended up arriving at such a small station that had nobody staffing it and only a little box to put your tickets in. I felt a little bad but I guess we just got away with it.

The Ryokan was amazing. The service was fantastic, from the moment they picked us up at the station. We had a wonderful view of the ocean from our room, there was a private bath, and we enjoyed maybe the most elaborate meal I’ve ever had. They brought the food to our room and over several courses, we were served about 20 different items, all of which were really tasty.

They also had two different larger baths you could go to. Each one had a pretty big indoor bath and outdoor bath, and you reserved them by walking in and locking the door behind you. It was a really nice way to wind down and relax towards the end of the trip.

Day 11: Hiking and Suspension Bridges (Shizuoka)

We had a slow start to the day with an amazing traditional breakfast served in our room. Once again it was a huge assortment of 12 or so tiny dishes, some of which I wasn’t such a huge fan of as others, but it was interesting to try them all out.

I had initially thought that we might catch the cherry blossoms in the same place I went to last year, Kawazu, but we were a little late for them (and a little early for most other places). We decided to go exploring and headed one station north to Izu Kogen. It sounded like they may also have cherry blossoms blooming, however it turned out that they were mostly over with.

We stopped by a cafe at the station to rest and figure out our next steps and got a quick bite to eat. In that cafe, there was a big full-wall picture of waterfalls and a suspension bridge, so we decided to check it out since it was nearby and we were waiting for a train. The cliffs and view turned out to be amazing and we decided to take a later train so we could do a little hiking. It was the perfect weather for it, and a nice sea breeze.

We headed back to the station by the Ryokan to see a couple local sights. We got some bad walking directions from Google so we ended walking halfway up a mountain before having to turn around. The place we were looking for was close as the crow flies but was down a huge cliff and we weren’t jumping.

The little community there was very small and there were very few restaurants nearby. We found the one that wasn’t too far from where we were staying and grabbed some food there. Shannon had curry and I had a ‘Stamina Bowl’. We relaxed in the onsen a bit one last time before calling it a night.

Day 12: Shopping Day (Tokyo)

On our last full day in Japan, we set aside some time to do a bit of shopping back in Tokyo. After another amazing breakfast at the Ryokan, we headed out for Hamamtsucho where we stayed the final night. On the way there, we chatted with a friendly older Japanese gentleman on the ride to Atami. He told us about some of his travels and asked about ours. He spoke very good English as well.

Unfortunately, Shannon’s broken luggage from earlier was only the first bad luck we had on that front. While we were waiting to change trains, I was pulling my suitcase and the handle came off! At least all the parts were in tact!

We got to Hamamtsucho and had to wait a couple hours before we could check in to the hotel. This actually worked out well because the hotel staff was find us a repair place not too far away and it was all fixed in 10 minutes (and for only 300 yen!). I was pretty happy we got that sorted quickly. After some shopping and a trip to a cafe, we got to our room for a little relaxing, bags stuffed bags full of Japanese goods.

Finally, we went out that evening for Yakiniku with one of Shannon’s old English student from 10 years ago, Tei. She was very nice and spoke English very well. It was fun to get to meet her and I hope we can meet again some day.

Day 13: Heading back (Tokyo)

What an exciting trip, we got done everything we wanted to, and ate really well! All that was left was to pack things up and get ready to leave. We actually had lots of time to burn, since the flight wasn’t until 7PM. We ended up going to Akihabara for a bit to do a little exploring and found a nearby park to have a walk.

There was a bit of a scare that the planes right engine wouldn’t start. I’ve heard horror stories about things like that and I was afraid we be stuck for another day or stuck on the plane for hours but we were in the air with less than an hour delay and made it back safe and sound.

Another exiting trip in the books. I can’t wait to go there again, but it might be a couple of years until next time, we’ll have to wait and see! Until then, thanks for reading.