Wakayama, Shikoku, Okayama: Day 4

I slept in...and it was wonderful! I took my time getting going this morning. Enjoyed some Wakayama mikan juice that I'd bought a couple of days ago.

    
When I eventually got out of the hotel, I headed for Takamatsu Castle in Tamamo Park. Originally, this spot hadn't been on my radar for places to visit, but I met a Japanese-American woman on the ropeway yesterday who recommended it.

  
I wasn't in time for the kiku matsuri (chrysanthemum festival) she had seen, but there was still one small display left.
  

The castle doesn't exist anymore, but one of the turrets is still there.

A nice, relaxing place for a nap

      
I spent about 40 minutes strolling through the garden before making my way over to the train station and on to my next stop: Ritsurin Garden, the top tourist destination in the prefecture.

   
This garden is huge!  The woman I met yesterday said she'd spent five hours here.  I only stayed for about three hours or so, but there's definitely plenty to look at.

   
It was also a bit more crowded than I'd expected, so today I thought I'd try something different with my photos. I normally take a lot of pictures of structures or landscape, but today I did a little people-watching as well.

Quite a few little kids in kimonos today--I think they must be celebratingshichi-go-san (7-5-3), a rite of passage ceremony held in November.

   

Enjoying snacks and feeding the koi

On a tour of one of the ponds

Playing with the fish

   
Finally, I sat down to enjoy Kagawa Prefecture's most well-known dish: udon noodles.  They were serving some at a food stall in the middle of the garden, so I got to enjoy my yasai-ten udon (udon noodles with vegetable tempura) while taking in the view.

The noodle menu. At the top of the board, they're also advertising the fact that a tremendously popular
boy band (嵐) has also eaten here. (Ono-kun really enjoyed his noodles, apparently.)

Udon noodles in broth, topped with pumpkin, sweet potato, and burdock tempura

    
While browsing through the handicrafts on display inside one of the buildings, one of the sellers told me that tonight was the first night of their annual "Autumn Light-up"--they illuminate some of the trees and other features in the garden and allow admission after dark.  He told me that I wouldn't have to buy a second ticket; I could just show up with the same one from this afternoon.  It sounded like a good idea, and my hotel isn't that far away, so I went back to my room to rest for a couple of hours before going back out again.

The seller had mentioned that the garden has a completely different atmosphere at night, and he couldn't have been more right:

Crowds surrounding the tent where the vendors were selling udon and other snacks.

 

Dango (balls of chewy rice on a stick) was a popular choice

  
I think I liked it better there after dark. In the daytime, the most noticeable color is green, but the illumination really draws your attention to all the other colors.

Koi thrashing around in the pond

   
One of my favorite parts was how the planners had really taken advantage of the pond.  Lights were placed to create perfect reflections everywhere.

      
After nearly an hour, I made my way back out of the garden and caught the bus down to the port. Tomorrow morning I'll take a ferry to a tiny island famous for its art, and I wanted to make sure I knew where to go.

But now that I'm back at my hotel, I've got a little homework to get done before I call it a night.

Which picture was your favorite?  How did my people-watching experiment turn out?  Let me know by leaving a comment, and check in again tomorrow!

Wakayama, Shikoku, Okayama: Day 3

This morning was another early one: 6am! Last night made sure most of my belongings were packed and ready to go, in order to make it easier to get out the door. It worked, but coincidentally, I had misread the bus schedule, and didn't even need to get to the station so early...

Waiting for the train to take me to the port...

   
I had to change plans and take the train instead, but I made it to Wakayama Port and onto the ferry just in time. This trip took me from the largest and most populous of Japan's four main islands (Honshu) to its smallest and least populous (Shikoku). This was also the only of the four islands that I had not yet been to.

View from the starboard side...

   

...and from the port side.

    
The two-hour ferry ride was smooth and allowed me time to take a 45-minute nap and make up for such an early morning, but not before I spent some time out on the deck to take pictures of the Seto Inland Sea.

I wasn't the only person on board who was ready for a nap.

   
I arrived in Tokushima City and made my way to the city center by bus.  It was still rather early in the day, and I decided to visit the grounds of the castle ruins before sitting down to lunch. Today was the perfect day for outdoor pictures: lovely blue sky (the bluest I've seen in a while) and turning leaves on the ginkgo trees.

   

   

   
  
I also stopped by the historical museum, which has its own Japanese style-garden. Though not as big--and not quite as fancy--as other gardens I've made it to, this was one of my most-enjoyed visits to a garden. The designers and landscapers have placed large stones all around for visitors to walk on without disturbing the greenery, and you can go just about everywhere in the garden--including walking over a large slab of stone right through the middle of a rock garden.  This is definitely high on my list of recommendations out of the places I've seen so far this trip.

Over the entrance to the historical museum

   

In the garden behind the museum

  
Next was lunch.  I had wanted to try local specialties while traveling, and today was my first opportunity.  When I'd arrived at the station a couple of hours earlier, I'd seen a sign for a "Tokushima burger" in the restaurant of a hotel, so I decided to check it out.

Served with pumpkin soup and a small green salad

     
It was one of the best burgers I've ever had!  The bun is green because it's made with edamame. Inside the burger are all kinds of items that Tokushima Prefecture is known for: deep fried renkon (lotus root), Awa Odori poultry (a local type of chicken), Naruto kintoki (delicious sweet potatoes), and a sauce made from Sudachi (a tart citrus the color of a lime, but smaller). My mouth is watering just thinking about it again...

Full and happy, it was time for a walk.

   
Eventually, I made my way up the street to a building selling local souvenirs.  I picked up a couple of bottles of Sudachi-flavored club soda, as well as a small cup of ice cream made with soy pulp and flavored with yamamomo (Japanese Bayberry, another local specialty).

   
From there I took the elevator up to the 5th floor, where I got on a ropeway that took me up Mt. Bizan ("eyebrow mountain"--so called because it supposedly resembles the arch of an eyebrow). I had done my homework ahead of time today, checking the time of sunset, so that I could be at the top of the mountain at just the right time.

"Eyebrow Mountain"

   

Beware of wild boar!  (I never saw any, though...)

     
It was worth it! I spent 90 minutes enjoying beautiful views of the city and sea to the east, and of the mountains to the west. What a nice way to end the day (and a blog post, too, for that matter).

The green in the center is the castle park where I'd been earlier. The history museum is to the lower-right of the hill.

     
Phew!  It's only been three days of vacation, and I've already worn myself out. :) I'm spending the weekend in Takamatsu, another city on Shikoku...but I'm definitely going to let myself sleep in tomorrow.