Tokushima, Where It All Starts....Or Ends

For most henro, the pilgrimage starts in Tokushima, as there are 5 temples within easy walking distance of the city and each other. Kind of lures them into a false sense of security ("This pilgrim thing won't be so bad!") until they have to circle around Ashizuri on foot. By then, it's too late.

For us, it's the end of our time in Shikoku. But before feeling sorry for ourselves, we needed to GET to Tokushima. Getting up early, we stopped at the front desk to ship our bikes and duffle bags to the airport ahead of us ($65 for all four bags. I still can't get over that) and headed over to the station, we caught the first bus out to Matsuyama, which was about two hours long and almost as comfortable as our overnight bus down here. Our layover in Matsuyama was a little longer than we anticipated (about 90 minutes), so that gave us enough time to stop at a konbini and get some food for the longer trip (about 3 hours) to Tokushima. The whole journey was quiet, uneventful and the easiest we'd had since getting to Japan.

Getting into Tokushima at about 12PM, we were several hours early for check-in, but we headed to the hotel first just in case we could get in early. Unfortunately, the hotel lobby actually CLOSES from 11-3, so no luck. Back in the town square, we put our bags in a coin locker and surveyed our lunch options to kill some time until 3. Across from the station, Sumi spotted an Oushou Clear, a rather famous gyoza chain. We went there to satisfy her gyoza deficiency, and were not disappointed. Oushou has some of the best cheap food in Japan. Gyoza, fried rice, ramen and salad all for a reasonable price.

Two of Sumi's three favorite Japanese foods, even though they are both really Chinese originally

With several hours to kill, we hopped on a train headed west to Bandou station to visit Temples 1 and 2, Ryouzen-ji and Gokuraku-ji. On the train, there were several PSAs, including how to sit on a train

I love the one on the left

After getting off the train, we walked about a mile to the first temple, Ryouzen-ji. This was a rather different kind of temple. The mannequins were our first clue.

Everything for the stylish henro, including high heels.

I can't imagine what possessed someone to donate old fashion mannequins to a temple, but they graciously accepted them and put them to use.

The interior of the temple was more normal, with the exception of the occasional mannequin. They had an amazing koi pond with more koi than I had ever seen in one pond.

There was also a monster koi, about three feet long who ruled the pond. 

Buddhas on Lilypads?

We realized as we approached the temple that Sumi had shipped her stamp book to the airport already, so she wouldn't be able to get her book filled in at these temples. Somehow, the temple still got some of our money, and we headed to Temple 2, Gokuraku-ji. On the way, we passed a small citrus farm that hand hand-covered every fruit in the orchard to protect it, most likely, from insects, birds or sunlight.

Gokuraku-ji was about 1km from Ryouzen-ji on the same road, and was lacking mannequins, which was somewhat disappointing. What it was not lacking, however, was artwork. There were various statues, idols, carvings and buildings strewn across a rather large area.

Impressive main gate

Beautiful carved dragon building to house the fountain of water to purify oneself before praying.

water spout in the foutain

Buddha with a bunch of kids. This temple had numerous statues with Buddhas and children...

and sleeping pilgrims.

On the way out, we passed one of those shrines you see in movies or anime. The ones that are set on top of a mountain with hundreds of stairs leading up to them. Yes, they do exist.

No, we didn't climb up there. Sumi was pretending to be a Buddhist pilgrim, not a Shinto one.

It was about 3PM at this point, and we had wasted enough time so that our hotel would be open again. Walking to the nearest train station, Awakawabata, we were reminded how small the towns here were. The station had one track that ran "Wanman trains", which is Japenglish for One Man Train, where there is only a driver for the train, no conductor, no station staff, just the guy or girl at the wheel. They reminded me of the tiny trains we took in Taiwan to get to the center of the island and some of the small mountain villages there.

Getting to our hotel, a smiling little woman greeted us and had all sorts of Tokushima tourist literature for us, as well as some handwritten English directions for using the TV that she must have spent an hour on before we got there. When she found out we spoke Japanese, she pulled away the English she had written (I'm thinking she wasn't too confident in her English. I totally understand. If I had done that for a Japanese speaker, I'd be rather embarrassed to give it to them if they spoke English). She was very pleasant and helpful and had given us what passed in this hotel as the Grand Suite.

This room was as big as the room at the temple we were just at that easily held six pilgrims

The room was beautiful, with it's own full bathroom (a luxury in these smaller hotels) a small window garden and all sorts of space. One thing it did not have was internet. We asked her about wi-fi and she said it wasn't very good, and we'd need an extra USB antenna to get it in our room. She got one out for us, reminded us that it wouldn't work on a tablet (heh!) and away we went. Even with it, I couldn't connect to anything in our room. Oh well, I guess we just had to enjoy our beautiful Japanese room instead.

There was a famous Awa-Odori (Awa festival dance) that Tokushima puts on every year, but also has nightly performances for tourists by professional dancers. The front desk lady urged us to go, and told Sumi she needed to get up and dance with them (they pull people up from the audience at the end of the show and teach them how to dance). We had every intention of going, but a combination of stage fright  from Sumi and the fact that we couldn't even stay awake past 7:30 (the dance started at 8), we had to make due with a 10 minute preview we saw on TV before we fell asleep.

Tomorrow we board the ferry for an 18 hour trip to Tokyo!