I am way behind on my posts; wifi is not always easy to find…..not even the Golden Arches have it, and it takes forever to upload on mobile 3G data. Anyway, I’ll try to catch u

  Woke early my first morning dying for a coffee

 

 
Had breakfast 

Went shopping for the clothing worn by the henro, the pilgrim. Half a dozen suited Japanese gentlemen emerged from various offices and watched while I tried on the hat, each of them bowing and beaming when I looked their way. We were then offered rice tea while I made the purchase, followed by another round of bowing. 

Visited a castle which of course was on top of a hill

  

Practiced taking panoramas with my phone

  

Admired the way Japanese love to put random characters on their signs
  

Looked at art

  
Looked at an exhibition of 100 Chairs in 100 Days  

Had dinner in a traditional Japanese restaurant, amazing fried chicken, rice and daikon pickle was yum, not so fussed with sitting on the floor    

 

Tomorrow the walking begins!

    
    
    
    
    
 

 One of the interesting and sometimes challenging aspects of overseas travel is using the restrooms. 

First there is the door sign situation. I can’t tell you how awkward it is to be in a cross-legged situation in front of two doors and not being able to work out which one is for men and which for women. Traditional toilets in Asian countries are mostly the squat variety and  it’s always such a relief to find a western toilet. 

And so to Japanese toilets.  On the whole using toilets in Japan is a joy. The Japanese it seems are quite delicate about the whole toilet experience and do all they can to make it comfortable and hide all evidence of embarrassing body functions. 

The seats are warmed, the sound of flushing hides the actual sounds, sprays clean the body parts and a deodorise function makes the whole experience smell sweet. I found the warm seats a bit disconcerting at first, but preferable to the towelling covered toilet seat at one place we stayed.

  

How cool are these baby seats in some public toilets, do they have them in Australian public toilets?

  
I wish that the first time I had to use the Japanese  squat toilet I had seen this sign.  

  

And that’s all I have to say about that…….

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!

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