Adventures in Japan

A Partridge In A Pear Tree

On this day of Christmas, Carla and I woke up early and got ourselves on a train. We're taking in some new sights. Down Shikoku way.

We didn't take the Shinkansen this time. There are these crazy cheap tickets you can get, but you have to take local trains. Which takes longer, and you have to transfer a lot more often, but it ain't so bad. Here's a brief word from our Carla:

We're off to see Shikoku! It's the smallest of Japan's four big islands, just a bit southwest of Osaka. We're doing it all by local train, which is very cheap, but a bit of a logistical nightmare. I thought I had all the transfers perfectly choreographed, but as it turns out, at Aioi Station the trains don't quite line up and we had to walk about 20 metres down the platform to make our connection. Except we couldn't really walk, because everyone around us was running. One guy just about fell onto the tracks trying to get past me. It was nuts! And then we all waited for two quiet minutes until it was time for the train to leave. Sometimes, this country is really weird.

Yes, wife of mine, that was indeed strange. And that train that we rushed on to was not made with us in mind. Not that it was horribly uncomfortable, but we couldn't see out any of the windows. They were to short and we were too tall. Here is a picture of my view:


That was a bit dull. The music made things a bit more interesting. There was a guy standing next to us singing along with the music on his iPod. I think he thought he was singing softer than he actually was.

We transfered from that train to a train that crossed a vast expanse of water. Japan has a lot of islands. Pretty islands. The bridge we were on had a lot of beams that got in the way of all the pretty islands we saw. Here is a picture of the beams:


We made it into Takamatsu around lunchtime, so we had some lunch. Then we went to Ritsurin park. It is famous or something. The day was grey and kind of overcast, so most of our pictures didn't turn out. But here are some that did:






Some notes on the trains here: They run on diesel. They have way fewer cars per train. The doors are not automatic. It is all a little off putting.

There is a park near our hotel. It was filled with Christmas cheer this evening.



There was also a big mural/art type thing made entirely out of noodles. And old Japanese dudes kept coming up to me and talking to me in Japanese. One dude told me that God was in his heart. And mine too. The other guy made way less sense. I think he was telling me that Japanese girls are hot. Cuz they are criminals.

That's all for tonight. I was supposed to be asleep a while ago. Carla already is. And the spell checker ain't working. So I apologize for all my many faults. Happy Boxing Day all.