Naruto Whirlpools...

  Hiwasa, Japan
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I made a pig`s ear of my journey to Tokushima by departing my first train at Himeji instead of Aioi, thus missing my connection and adding a couple of hours onto the trip. I didn`t mind this so much as I was content listening to my music, and admiring the scenery which was particularly beautiful as we crossed over to Shikoku. The annoying part occurred when a conductor appeared on one of the trains, a rarity on the futsu ones, which meant that I had to cough up the fare (despite my "stupid foreigner" routine). I couldn`t complain though as the scam had served me well up until that point...

Thankfully I arrived in Tokushima before the Tourist Information had closed because I needed to find some accommodation...previous attempts to book somewhere had fallen on deaf ears with everyone seemingly unwilling to answer the telephone. It was a welcome surprise to deal with an English girl at the info place, and she provided me with all kinds of information for the rest of my trip, as well as a map to find Sakura-so, my hotel for a couple of nights.

1

The main thing that I wanted to do whilst in this neck of the woods was a trip to the Naruto Whirlpools, although I appreciated that it wasn`t something that I was guaranteed to see. The chance of witnessing this natural phenomenon increases if you time your boat trip to coincide with the change of the tide, which on Tuesday morning was 10.40am, so I made an early start as Naruto was an hour bus ride away from Tokushima.

I`d had a scare just before setting off when my camera stopped recognising my memory card for some unknown reason...not more camera problems? I gambled and bought a new memory card from a convenience store, and it was such a relief when the camera accepted it...

2

Anyway, I reached the boat terminal in plenty of time and surprise surprise, there were schoolkids everywhere! Do they ever actually spend time in the classroom? I knew I was going to create a stir (could that be considered a whirlpool-related pun?) being the only westerner on the boat, and that`s exactly what happened. It`s weird knowing that everybody`s eyes are on you, watching your every move, but I secretly like it because I know that it`s out of fascination and curiosity, certainly nothing negative.

One young scamp came over with his mates and asked me where I was from, and my reply seemed to go down well judging by the "Beckham!" shouts. I then shook hands with about a dozen of them, and the ringleader triumphantly said "Welcome to Tokushima" - the friendly folk of Shikoku were doing their best to make me re-reverse my decision to leave...

3

It took a few minutes for the boat to reach the whirlpool area, directly underneath the bridge, but I knew we were there when I heard excitable screams from the schoolgirls! I must admit that it was a bit unsettling to be heading towards the ferocious whirlpools as I had visions of them swallowing us up, but obviously that was never going to happen, and we were able to get excellent close up views of the water swirling around at a great velocity. It was actually a real buzz looking out for the whirlpools, just like on dolphin cruises, and I must admit that I enjoyed it immensely...

Once the cruise had finished, I walked back along the road to Naruto-koen, although not before I`d heard someone aim a shout of "I love you" in my direction (seriously). Actually there were some attractive Japanese girls on the boat so it could have been one of them...couldn`t blame her, I thought. Only when I looked around did I realise that it was in fact one of the schoolboys, who looked suitably embarrassed and was being teased by his mates!

8

There were good views of the bridge from the park, although it was home to a lot of killer-sized bees which had me performing like a lunatic, trying to avoid being stung.

Back in Tokushima, I got the r_p_w_y to the top of Mount Bizan for good views of the city, and walked back down via a steep path, and towards the Information Centre to plan the next part of my trip. It certainly appeared that I was venturing even more off the beaten track by heading down the coast, so much so that I was warned that noone would speak any English...anywhere. So what`s new?

z13

When I arrived in the small town of Hiwasa the next morning, I realised that it wasn`t accustomed to western tourists when I got to the youth hostel and was greeted by three old Japanese ladies, gossiping around the kitchen table. For a minute, I thought that I`d misread the map and burst in on Japan`s version of Last of the Summer Wine! For the life of me, I couldn`t get the message across that I wanted to stay for the night, and they looked at me in complete bewilderment. Turns out that they were the cleaners, although what they had actually cleaned remains a mystery since for once, the Lonely Planet was pretty accurate in its "a little rundown" description. Still, I was to stay in a much higher standard of accommodation in the days to come...

z14

Hiwasa is famous for the turtles that come ashore each summer to lay their eggs, and I was hoping that they`d decided to come a bit earlier this year, but it wasn`t to be. I did enjoy roaming around the museum though that had some interesting features, a great thirty minute documentary, and plenty of turtles, including a 59 year old in the outside pool. I watched the staff feed them all fish, before walking to Yakuo-ji, Temple 23 of the pilgramage...

Shikoku seems to be overrun with Henro - people doing the full 88 temple circuit - and it`s nice to see them on the streets instead of backpackers. Some are sticking to tradition and walking the entire way, covering hundreds of kilometres, whereas a lot are using trains, buses and taxis, which kind of defeats the object really. Not that I`m in a position to criticise though...

z19

By chance, I stumbled upon a really scenic walkway in the early-evening that provided nice views of the coast, and that passed a couple of hours until it was just about dark. In fact I timed it to perfection as it started raining heavily just as I arrived back at the hostel, but as is so often the case, the rain cleared the skies and I awoke to bright sunshine the next morning...