The bus trip to Haneda Airport was uneventful. I made a random choice of drink from the vending machine, hoping the brown background on the bottle signified coffee but it tasted like a cheap cola.     

I had left plenty of time to allow for getting lost but Haneda Domestic is thankfully quite small and only two floors, so I managed  to find my book-in line without any dramas. Celebrated with a beer.

  
Good flight to Tokushima, felt quite smug about finding the bus to Tokushima Station and then finding the Japan Rail office to validate my rail pass. There was a flurry of activity when the lady in the office realised I wanted to go Marugame on the next train, one minute I was sitting at the office and the next we were racing through the station,  JR office lady amazingly agile in her high heels and waving madly at the station guard. What a relief to know I was finally on the last leg of my journey!

My relief lasted about an hour until the train reached a station which definitely wasn’t Marugame where I was meeting Liz and Sarah and everyone got off. I finally found someone who understood what I wanted, another dash across the station, and I was another train. 

How wonderful it was to get off the train and see my two girls waiting for me!