{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}

--Thoughts during Week Three--

It poured down rain last night, or at least is sounded like it did. However when we all got up for breakfast it was overcast and threatening but not actually raining. The weather forcast called for an 80% chance of rain both in the morning and in the afternoon. We all expected the worst, but hoped for the best.

We actually did get the best. It was a 5 hour trek down to Cape Ashizuri and Temple 38, Kongofukuji, and while it spit sprinkles from time to time, it never actually broke out into a full rain. I wore my rain coat and had the rain cover on my back pack, but never had to put on the rain pants.

I managed to get myself completely lost this morning. I had no clue if i was on the right road, where i might be on the road i was on, or how i was going to find my way back to civilization. I was on a little one-lane road running along the coast and absolutely nothing that i could see had any relation to what i could see on the map. I did, on two separate occasions, find mountain trail short cuts that were marked as part of the henro trail, but i took neither because something about them just didn't seem right. Since i had no idea where i was, i could have missed the beginning of the trail and what i was looking at was the end where it reconnected with the main trail. That is, by getting on them i could have been backtracking and ended up further away from my destination. In both cases that is what i assumed (with nothing but a gut feeling to back it up) and continued to follow the main road. Eventually i got back to the main highway and followed that all the way to the cape.

About two hours before reaching the cape, i ran into a small hut that someone is operating to offer a place for henro to take a break. There were already about 4 other henro in there, but they were all headed north, back towards Nakamura so that they could cut over to Temple 39. I joined them and ate half a mikan (a type of tangerine) before setting out again.

About an hour after taking that break, i met a Canadian who is walking the pilgrimage and is taking his time. He says that he has 20 km (12 mi) feet and that is all he is comfortable walking. He expects to finish sometime in June. There is an Austrailian here as well and he is staying at the cape for a second night. From what i hear on the henro grapevine, he is walking in a hakama and sandals. It would be nice to meet him.

Temple 38 is undergoing some major construction. It doesn't look like the buildings are changing, or their location, but it looks like they are redoing all of the landscaping and repaving the walkways. When i got my Nōkyōchō stamped, i was given a carton of tea as settai. Apparently all walkers get one as he asked me if i was walking before offering it. After visiting the temple, having lunch, and then getting a cup of coffee, i headed down the road for the second leg of the day and the trip back north to Shimizu City.

It didn't rain all afternoon either, so i consider today a very good success. I got into town right a 4:00, and stopped at the supermarket to buy bread, sandwich meat, and bananas for lunches over the next few days. If you walk this, make sure you stock up on food before leaving Temple 37. From there down to the cape there is almost nowhere to buy lunch. Then restock before heading back north. Having stocked up at the Sunny Mart, i found my minshuku and checked in. It looks like i am the only customer again, as has been the case many nights this year. I find that strange.

It is pouring outside as i write this and the wind is blowing up a storm. I haven' seen the weather forcast yet, but this morning they were predicting very, very heavy rains tomorrow.

I just saw the forcast and they say that the rain at it's peak will fall at about 50 mm (2 in) per hour and should peak early tomorrow morning around dawn — by which time we could have had about 300 mm (12 in) of rain in total. And they are still calling for rain all day.

--Tuesday, 4/11--
The wind last night kept waking me up every couple of hours. It was so strong that it seemed to be trying to tear the building down. I couldn't even tell if it was raining for the noise of the wind.

Was awake before the alarm went off a 6:00, and seriously considered not walking today. The wind and rain were fearsome. But, i decided to wait and see what the owner said at breakfast. I had fantasies of her saying that it might be best if i didn't walk today as the forcast was calling for more rain, floods, and extremely strong winds. She said no such thing though. She did go to the door and look out, but only said that since we are right across the street from the port the winds are stronger here than anywhere in town, so i should be better once i get on the road. I fell for it and decided to leave.

After packing everything in the plastic bag liner i have for my backpack, i went downstairs to try and make tonight's reservations. There are very, very few minshuku in this part of the island, at least very few noted in the mapbook we carry. That meant that i only had two choices for tonight's lodging. The first choice was about 32 km (19.5 mi) away and that would have been perfect, but they wouldn't answer when i called. That usually means they are no longer in business, which wouldn't surprise me since a woman in her seventies operated it when i was there 7 years ago. The back up choice, and the one i ended up reserving at, is only 20 km (12.2 mi) away. When i called, i told her that it was only 20 km so i would be there early, but she said that was OK.

After making my reservation, i bundled up and buttoned up as much as possible and headed out the door at 7:00. Once on the road, i found myself about 100 m (330 ft) behind another henro, but since a conversation would have been too difficult in these weather conditions i slowed down so i wouldn't catch up.

The rain and wind for the first two hours are hard to describe. The best way to imagine it would be to take your car to the car wash, and just before it starts to get out and stand in front of the car. The wind was blowing hard enough that it would occasionally knock me backwards. In order to keep most of the water out of my rain coat, i had the hood closed up to a small little opening. But being closed off that much, the wind kept the top of the hood flat againt my face and i couldn' see anything. So that i could at least see enough that i didn't walk into the middle of the road, i had to hold the top of the hood open just a bit, to the point that i could at least see about 1 m (3.3 ft) in front of me and to either side. Unfortunatley this meant that the rain rain down the arm that was holding open the hood and that sleeve soon filled with water. When that one started to get obviously full, i would hold the hood open with the other arm and let that sleeve drain out. On top of that, the water running down the back of my rain coat would catch in the bottom of the cover on my back pack, so i would have to reach around avery 2-3 minutes and drain that water as well.

Within a half hour, my boots were full of water as well. I guess you could say that i got fairly wet. All in all, though i stayed on the damp side of wet instead of the soaking side. That is to say, i was never dry, but never soaked to the skin. And the important thing is that the rain suit kept the wind out so it wasn't all that bad.

As bad as the weather was, the times when i peeked out at the ocean, the coastline was beautiful. Obviously the gods of the ocean were furious at something and the waves were pounding the coast, but it was beautiful in all its fury. The Cape Ashizuri side of the island is everything that the Cape Miroto side is not. Where the coast on the Miroto side of the island slopes gently down to sandy beaches, the coast on the Ashizuri side, for the most part, is rugged, with steep rocky cliffs lined at the top with trees dropping into the ocean and the shoreline covered in black rocks and boulders.

Then, going on 10:00, it stopped. It didn't taper off, it simply stopped. From then on, it was overcast, but no longer raining. And, since i was only walking 20 km (12.2 mi) i stopped for some coffee to kill some time so that i didn't end up trying to check in at 12:00. I stopped at a large visitors center for tourists, the kind where they have a restaurant on one side and on the other they sell traditional foods and trinkets to tourists that come by.

I was the only customer in the restaurant so asked what looked like the waitress if they had coffee. She said yes, and ordered it from the kitchen. Only problem is that it turns out that she wasn't a waitress, but a bus guide sitting in the quite and doing some paperwork while the bus customers did their shopping. In any case, i got my coffee. Shortly after the coffee arrived, i had the strangest settai i have ever received. While talking to the bus guide a man came up, said exuse me, picked my glasses up off the table, and then proceeded to clean them. When he was done, i said thank you, but he just nodded and left. I must have looked pretty wet when i walked in the door.

I wasted over a half hour there, and then headed down the road again, this time without the rain suit. That's when i found that the only casuality from all the water was my belt. The leather had broken in half at the hole where the clasp holds it shut making the belt completely unusable. Don't ask my why, or how, but it did. And since i have lost a little weight, my pants are now falling off of me. I am constantly pulling them up when i don't have my pack on to hold them up.

After another hour, i stopped and killed another half hour on the side of the road eating lunch. After yet another 2 breaks, i finally decided to head to the minshuku and check in about 1:45. The day turned out to be fairly sunny and warm and would have been great for walking had i had somewhere to go.

Once checked in, i did some laundry and, since it was still early, took a nap. It was a completely relaxing day and probably what my feet need even though they have been feeling pretty strong these last few days. In fact, i didn't even bother to tape them this morning.

At 4:00 i was told i could take a bath, and was surprised to see a bottle of bubble bath on the shelf with the shampoo and soap. Given what we all know about taking anything into a Japanese bath, i was surprised. I've seen it at hotels, but never in a traditional japanese bath at a minshuku or ryokan. I could just picture a young daughter, many years ago, bringing some bubble bath home, and when she told her mother what she inteded to do, mom said said something like "You want to put what in my bath? And, what, pray tell, do you expect me to tell the customers?"

At dinner the owner's husband decided that he wanted to talk. It didn't hurt that he was drunk, completely trashed, so it was an interesting meal. He was drinking shōchu (a liquor made of sweet potatos and rice?) like it was water. When i turned down some shōchu, he gave me a bottle of sake as settai instead. I took it, but knew i wouldn't drink it because i had asked for a bottle of beer to get him to stop pushing the shōchu idea.

My meal included 3 separate kinds of fish, one raw sashimi, one boiled, and the third roasted. When i told him how good the fish was, he gave me an extra plate of one of them. After eating that, he brought out another plate as well. As i got closer to finishing my meal i apologized and said that i woudn't be able to drinlk the sake as i was too full and still had some beer left. At that he took the bottle back, but gave me a small can of beer as a replacement. I gave up and drank that while we talked. Actually, it was more of he talked while i threw in a comment once in a while. He was really smashed and seemed to love the company.

During the conversation he said that i just shouldn't be single. It just didn't make sense to him. He said that i should take home a 35-40 year old Japanese wife — if not this year, then at least the next. When i expressed doubts about a woman of that age wanting to marry a man my age, he said that he was positive that there are many out there that wouldn't care. In fact, according to him, it happens all the time here in Japan. I told him that since i leave later in the week, i wouldn't have time this year, but would think about it next year. That seemed to make him happy.

Tomorrow i'll walk all the way to Sukumo, and within 6-7 km (about 4 mi) of Temple 39, Enkoji. I'll spend the night in Sukumo and then walk to Enkoji on Thursday morning.

--Wednesday, 4/12--
Woke up to a sunny and warm day. Breakfast was ready early and the owner called me down, so i was done and ready to leave by 6:45. When i paid, the owner told me that all of my beer last night was free. I reminded her that the small can beer had been given to me and she said that was free as well.

It was warm enough that i started the day in short sleeves, something that usually takes an hour to wam up to. Within 15 minutes of being on the road, a man pulled his car over and gave me a small cloth coin purse with some candy in it. We didn't talk much, so i thanked him and we parted ways. I spent the day walking along the coast heading north to Sukumo.

Stopped at Tsukiyama Shrine but didn't stay all that long. To get there took several hours of walking on a lonely single lane road that wound its way along the coast from time to time and then inland in the hills for a time. I had no company, cars or people, only the birds to talk to. Once i got to the shrine, it doesn't look like it has changed and there still isn't much there to see. If you walk around to the back of the shrine on the right, they have a wall of glass so that you can see the inner shrine, but it doesn't look much different than the inner shrines at any other temple. Actually there isn't anything to see here, i walk here for the hike in this part of the island.

I stoppped and had a sandwich and a few bananas at a table in the sun at a Michi no Eki along the road in Ōtsuki. a little while after leaving there, a woman stopped her car and bought me something to drink from a vending machine. After thanking her, she drove off, but pulled into a shop about 50 m (165 ft) down the road. As i walked by, she came running out and tried to give me a bento. I know i have always said never to refuse settai, but i felt i had to tell her no this time. I had just finished lunch a little while ago, and while there, had thrown away a bento given to me the day before at my minshuku. so, i knew i wouldn't have eaten it had i accepted it. And, to top it off, i felt there was no way that i was going to pass it off to anyone else. There are no other henro on this part of the trail and certainly no Japanese is going to take a bento as settai from a foreigner. So..... i decided that by refusing at least it would get eaten by someone else and not just go into the trash.

Took only one more break later in the afternnoon, arriving in Sukumo at just after 3:00. Found a business hotel that only charged ¥4,000 and checked in for the night. I couldn't find a convenience store, so for dinner i finished the bread and sandwich meat that i planned for lunch tomorrow.

As i have said in other entries, i may be one of the only henro to walk on the west side of Cape Ashizuri. Most henro backtrack from Temple 38 up the east side of the penninsula on the same roads they came down, and then cut over to Temple 39 on a much shorter route. By doing that, they get to Temple 39 a day after visiting Temple 38. By going my way it takes an extra couple of days but the west side of Ashizuri is a great, remote, place. Actually the entire walk down from Temple 37 to the cape and then back up to Temple 39 is a beautiful walk. Stunningly beautiful at times, especially when the clouds sink down into the vallys between the mountains and with the waves crashing into the rocks along the coast.

There is a price you pay for that beauty however. You have to plan much better because there are very few supermarkets and almost no convenience stores. There are even long stretches where you won't even see a vending machine for something to drink. You can't leave Temple 37 without buying about three days worth of food and filling a bottle with water and then restocking at either Cape Ashizuri or around the corner in Tosashimizu. There is a huge supermarket just as you enter Tosashimizu and you can buy anything you want. While there you need to buy another three days of food to get yourself up to Sukumo and Temple 39.

--Thursday, 4/13--
Since i was in a business hotel, i was out at 6:45. It was raining when i woke up and raining when i left the hotel — not a pouring rain, but a steady rain that kept me completely bundled up. I expected to find something to eat at one of two convenience stores that the maps said i would pass on the way to Temple 39, but i didn't see either of them so ended up going hungry.

It is a straight forward walk to Enkoji (Temple 39), but i saw no trail markers at all along the way. That left me little choice but to walk on Highway 56 all the way to the turnoff for the temple. Since it was early, morning rush hour was in full force and the street was packed. From the turnoff, it was a small climb up a side road for about 15 minutes. The temple compound itself doesn't look like it has changed at all.

After visiting the temple it was off to find Hirata train station. On the way to the station i stopped at a convenience store and bought a sandwich and OJ for breakfast, and a bento for lunch on the train to Kōchi.

It was only a half hour ride to Nakamura. Once at that station, i bought another ticket to Kōchi City but had a 2 hour wait until the train left. Luckily they had a waiting room. It took an hour and forty-five minutes to get to Kōchi on the Tokkyu (Special Express Train). Just like last year, it was interesting to watch the trail unravel in reverse as i recognized the places i had just walked for the past few weeks. Watching the farmers working out in their fields in the rain felt completely different when watching it from the comfort of a train than when watching in while walking past the field in the same rain as they were working in.

I had no lodging reservations when i got to Kōchi, but knew that you can always find hotels around the train stations, so just started walking once i got there. At random, i chose a hotel but when i went in the woman at the desk told me that while they had a room for me, and that it only cost ¥5,000, i couldn't check in until 4:00.

While we were discussing where i could kill several hours, the manager on duty come out and said that it was OK; i could check in now. It had been a quiet night last night so there were rooms ready and i could check in now if i wanted to. With that she left to verify that the room was already clean. While she was gone, the woman at the desk decided that since i was no longer going out for coffee she would give me some from the restaurant (which was closed at the time). The manager came back down and checked me in. She said they didn't have a single, but had another that they would give me at the same price. I thanked her, chatted for a little while about Kōchi Castle and the statue of Chiyo-san from the current NHK Drama series, and then i drank my coffee while checking tomorrow's weather and my email at a free terminal in the lobby. I have a lot of mail — which i'll answer next week.

I was finally in my room around 2:00 and it is a very nice room. Two double beds, or something between a single and a double, a desk, and a LOT of just plain empty space, something that is rare in a lot of cheaper rooms. Usually the rooms are packed to the hilt, but this had room to dance if you were so inclined.

Went out a little before 6:00 to buy something for dinner and saw that it has stopped raining. I thought about going to a restaurant, but decided i wanted to get back to the room and stuff some newspaper into my boots to try and dry them out a little before tomorrow. They got pretty soaked again this morning. I found a convenience store just a few blocks away so bought a sandwich, a banana, a donut, some orange juice, and the newspaper. Not a very good meal considering what i have been eating during the past few weeks, but the boots are more important tonight so went back to the hotel to eat while watching the news.

When i got back to the hotel and asked for my key, there was a message in my box with the key. Actually, the woman at the desk said that it wasn't really a message, but that someone (i can only assume it was the manager that checked me in?) had decided that i needed a ¥500 discount so the woman gave me the money. What can you say? I thanked her, told her that the people of Shikoku are too nice, and told her to thank the woman, but that really isn't enough. These people are amazing.

I called the hotel in Tokushima where i have a reservation for Saturday night. I chuckled when to start the conversation all i said was that i was Turkington the American, and from that the woman cut me off and said, Oh, David, thank you for calling, we have your room for tomorrow. Apparently they are expecting me. When i asked if they have a room free if i come back a day early, they said no, they are full on Friday night. However, they have a sister hotel about 5 minutes away by taxi and she put me on hold long enough to call them and verify that i could get a room there. I'm sure that there are other hotels closer to the station, but since they went to the trouble of checking for me i made the reservation for Friday night. I'll then transfer back to the hotel right by Tokushima Station on Saturday. The woman that helped me told me to come to the hotel by the station at three, and they would get me a taxi to the other hotel and tell the driver where to take me.

The weather is calling for a clear morning tomorrow but then changing to cloudy by the afternoon with more rain forecast for Saturday.

So with that, i am basically now done with another year on the henro trail. The three weeks in total, and 16 days of walking, have gone by so incredibly fast it's hard to believe.

--Friday, 4/14--
Up at a leisurely 7:00 this moring, but didn't sleep very well last night. I really didn't do anything yesterday and it will take my body some time getting used to not walking for 9 hours a day.

Breakfast was included in the cost of my room so i went down to the restaurant and had toast, a boiled egg and some coffee. While i was eating one of the "suits" from the front desk came in and tinkered around for a while. It seemed obvious that he was working up the courage to try and start a conversation. Sure enough after about 10 minutes he comes over with the standard opening lines, What country are you from and How long have you lived in Japan.

We ended up chatting for about 15 minutes about Japan, Shikoku, the henro trail, and, of course, his thoughts that i need to come over and find a wife. Sometimes i think i have a sign on my forehead that says I'm Desperate!" :-) The bad part is that i get this so often that i now joke about it when it comes up and agree with them, telling them i'll start looking right away. I wonder sometimes if they think i'm serious.

He also told me about a department store nearby where i can possibly by a new belt to keep my pants up and where they are giving away samples of sashimi of the new catch of Katsuo. I'll check out at 10:00 when the store opens and head that way. From there i'll head over to Kōchi Castle where i'll spend several hours before heading to Tokushima City.

Found the department store shortly after 10:00, but never did see the free sashimi. Too bad. When i bought the belt, it seemed to be the right size — until i got outside and put it on. It turned out to be a little too big, but i had already left the store so didn't see what i could do. Luckily on the way to Kōchi Castle i ran across several hardware-type stores and went in one of them. I apologized for asking such a strange favor, but could i borrow a knife to make a new hole in my belt. I was too embarrased to say that i was stupid enough to buy one that didn't fit, so told him i had lost weight while walking the past few weeks. He apologized but said he didn't have a knife, but while rummaging around through some drawers he pulled out an awl and asked if that would work.

Well, an awl is exactly what i wanted, but i didn't know the word for it and that's why i asked for a knife. After punching a new hole in my brand new belt, i tried it on and all was well. I thanked him and he seemed very pleased to have been able to help this strange foreigner that dropped in.

Kōchi Castle is a wonderful place. It is much smaller than other castles around Japan, but is perfectly restored and in almost original condition. The brochures say that at the beginning of the Meiji period (1868), when reformers were going around and destroying all the old castles, the authorities in Kōchi (Tosa, back then) had the idea to convert it to a public park in order to save it. Their efforts have certainly paid off.

From the castle i headed to a book store to look around and then to the train station to get a train back to Tokushima City. Tomorrow night i'll meet David Moreton and a few others for beer and dinner before heading to the airport on Sunday morning.

Got on the 2:00 train from Kōchi to Tokushima and had a long, but beautiful, 3 hour train ride through a part of the country i haven't seen yet. It would be great to be able to come back and explore the interier of the island where the train passed through to get back to Tokushima. While on the train, a junior high school girl had the guts to start up a conversation with me. That is surprising, as kids almost never do. She had all the same questions as the adults, but it was nice to meet a kid that didn't fear talking to a foreigner.

I got to the hotel by the station a little after 5:00, which was later than i had told them i would, but they were still expecting me. They immediately called a taxi for me and within 10 minutes i was on my way across town to the sister hotel. When we got there, the taxi driver told me that i didn't need to pay as the hotel had given him a coupon to pay for it. All he had to do was write the amount on it and return to the hotel from where we started.

The front desk gave me several possibilities for dinner tonight, but the best sounding was a pub/restaurant right next door. I dropped my back pack in my room and headed over as soon as i got in. To make a long story short, i was there for almost 2 hours eating a delicious meal of sashimi, rice, miso soup, several other side dishes, drinking three beers, and talking with the owner and a few of the other customers. All the while i looked through the owner's photo albums and we discussed the many countries we have both traveled in. He shuts down the pub several times each year for a few weeks each time and travels. Every year. He could very easily be a professional photographer in my opinion.

While i was eating, he told me that i should come back tomorrow morning and he would give me a tour of Tokushima. I agreed to meet him at 8:00 in front of the shop and from there we will start by visiting the Tokushima Grand Canyon. He laughed when he said it, and his wife said it was much smaller, but he said i needed to see it. He seems to be planning to keep me busy most of the day.

Missed the weather report for tomorrow so have no idea what to expect. Since we'll be in the pub owner's car, i shouldn't matter, but no rain would be better than rain.

--Saturday, 4/15--
When i left the hotel after breakfast, the hotel said i could leave my backpack in the office so i wouldn't have to carry it around whiile i was out. It was raining lightly when i left, and rained on and off throughout the day.

At 8:00 i walked next door and found the owner of the restaurant waiting for me. As soon as i got there he told me to meet him around the back, and locked up the shop while i walked around. When we got to his car, he gave me a stack about 2.5 cm (1 in) thick of postcards that he had made from pictures he has taken during his travels. All of them were pictures of women and in total they probably came from a dozen countries. With that, we were off for the whilewind tour of Tokushima City and the surrounding area.

We started our tour with a trip to what he called the best sight in all of Japan. I told him that couldn't be true as Mt. Fuji surely had to carry that title, but he was adamant and told me to just be patient. And believe it or not, after we got there i have to agree that it might be true. What he took me to was a statue of Minamoto Yoshitune, the younger brother of the founder of the Shogunate that set up and ruled the Kamakura Period beginning in the late 12^th century.

Yoshitsune's story is a fascinating story of brotherly love and betrail; dedication to a cause at the expense of your own life; complete dedication of retainers for their leader, not becuse he is strong but becuse he is good, just, and right; of fighting for a dream — a dream of what's best for all and not of personal power. The statue shows him sitting on his horse in full warrior outfit and is well over 4 meters tall. It truely captures his compelling presence and stature. Then only thing missing was a statue of Benkei, his most dedicated retainer and who, in life, may have never left Yoshitsune's side, and who faught to his death to hold off Yoshitsune's brother's soldiers so that Yoshitsune could commit seppeku rather than be captured and killed.

From there, we visited what is officially listed by the Japanese government as the smallest mountain in Japan. Rising to an astounding 6.1 m (20 ft), or there-abouts, Benkei Mountain dominates the area and soars above all the grass growing on the side of the road running next to it. There is a guest book there for visitors to sign and a look through it showed that people come from almost every prefecture in the country to visit it. We paid our respects to the gods of the mountain at the little shrine on the top and were then on our way.

We then drove to Naruto City and tried to see the whirlpools of Naruto, but either the time wasn't right or the weather wasn't right. I wasn't sure which. Oh well.

Udatsu no Machinami, our next stop, is a few blocks of houses that have been preserved in their original style, as they were built back in the Edo Period (1603 &ndash 1868). Back then, the Yoshino River, which runs along the valley in this part of the prefecture, didn't have high man-made banks to hold it in. In the Edo Period, the river was the main means of transport and came right up to this section of the town. This section of preserved houses was the merchant district and where the boats were unloaded and transferred to warehouses for future sale and redistribution. While there my guide treated me to lunch at one of the shops where the woman hand makes all of her food. Except for Dango, a dumpling filled with red bean paste, i have no idea what most of it was, but he hand picked a little of this and a little of that and then a little of that over there and we stuffed ourself silly before washing it all down with fresh green tea. Delicious.

From Udatsu no Machinami we headed over to Dochu, the Tokushima Grand Canyon as my guide liked to call it. He laughed everytime he said it, and said it might be a little smaller that the version in the US, but he stuck by his guns and said it was Tokushima's version. He bypassed all the normal tourist stops and took a very narrow one lane road all the way to the top so we could stand on the rim of the canyon. The road was so narrow and the turns so sharp that to make some of the hairpin turns he had to actually make half the turn, stop, back up, and then turn more just to get around.

What we saw when we got there was not even a canyon. It was a cliff made of sand and gravel that has eroded over the centuries leaving several spires free standing out from the face of the cliff. It looked like a magnificent case of soil erosion that stood about 30 m (100 ft) high, or deep, depending on your perspective. But, there were tourist platforms across the valley so that people could bring their lunches and relax while viewing them. In addition there were lights installed so that it would be lit up at night, and an entire block of businesses and restaurants were open about a block away to cater to the tourists. Unfortunately, few tourists ever come anymore and the only ryokan at the top has gone out of business.

With all of that under our belts, we headed back to the hotel where i picked up my backpack and he then shuttled me over to my hotel for the night. If you are ever in Tokushima City, find the Kencho-mae Daiichi Hotel and then look right next door for the Ishikawa-ya. The owner is the head cook and his wife is the second head cook. Or the other way around. You'll enjoy their company, whether you get a tour or not.

Once i was checked in i called and found out that David Moreton and family were going to pick me up and we were then all going to meet three other familes for dinner at some restaurant in the city. It was delicious and i had a great time.

Back in the hotel, i watched a little baseball and went to bed listening to the rain outside. Thus ended my last night on the island. Tomorrow it's off to the airport and home. Sighhhhh......

--Sunday, 4/16--
A very uneventful final day. My flight didn't leave today until almost 6:00 pm, so i have my choice — do i sit around the hotel and Tokushima City or do i sit around the airport? I chose the airport.

Found the bus from the bus terminal in front of Tokushima Station that goes to the airport, paid my ¥4,000, and settled in to wait. Once the bus arrived, the trip took just under three hours, but it left us off right at the front door of the International Departures floor of the airport. Can't ask for much better service than that.

Sat around for a while, found a coffee shop, sat around for a while more, found something to eat, sat around some more, walked around and window shopped at all the stores on the 3rd floor, sat around for a while and studied the kanji on the International Departures message/status board., went and found something to drink, sat around for a while, went and found a restroom, sat around for a while and studied the kanji on the International Departures message/status board some more, listened to the PA system for words i didn't know and looked them up un my dictionary, ....

Short eleven and a half hour flight home and it was all over.

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