When the cat's away, the mice will play

Squeak! わたしはねずみです. :)

Rieko and I took advantage of Chris's recent jaunt to a math conference in Tucson to go on a fun weekend girls' trip.

We headed to Akashi to see the famous Tako Ferry (a very cute car ferry painted with octopuses and dolphins) and Uontana which is a covered shopping arcade like Teramachi in Kyoto. Akashi is famous for tamago-yaki (similar to tako-yaki but softer and dipped in a soup before eating) which we enjoyed for lunch in one of many little restaurants that were serving it in Uontana.

We took a bus over the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge - the longest suspension bridge in the world! It links Honshu with Awaji Island. Then, we continued across all of Awaji Island to it's southern most point - Awajishima Minami. In Awajishima Minami we walked to Ibi Port to get to our amazing minshuku. A minshuku is a Japanese bed and breakfast type hotel, similar to a ryokan.

The dinner at the minshuku was crazy! We had sushi, sashimi, nabe, dried fish, grilled fish, crab, shellfish, and a live Naruto Red Snapper. It was a little creepy to see him flipping around on the plate. But once they took him away and returned with half of him filleted into sashimi and the other half delectably grilled over hot stones, we recovered admirably! It was enough to turn a person into a pescetarian.

Before dinner, we took a boat ride at high tide into Naruto Strait to see the Naruto Whirlpools in action. The picture above is a famous Hiroshige woodblock print of these whirlpools. The eddies are caused by a combination of tidal currents and the meeting of the Pacific Ocean with the Inland Sea at the straits. March and April are the best time of year to see this phenomenon as the spring tides can cause the whirlpools to spin up to 20km/hr. It was really neat to see!

Also, I was struck by the quiet. Both Shikoku Island and Awaji Island (especially the tiny Ibi Port) were quiet, relaxing escapes. It's rare in today's world to find places where you can be totally relaxed and able to enjoy nature alongside the silence of your own thoughts. It's nice.

The next day, at another tidal extreme, we were able to see the whirlpools from 45 meters above the sea at the Uzu no michi, an observation deck under O-Naruto bridge.

After enjoying the whirlpools, the Eddy and Bridge Museum in Naruto and some delicious free samples of wakame seaweed, we adventured towards Tokushima City on Shikoku. (Woo! Another island of Japan checked off the list.)

We rode the Bizan Ropeway (basically a cable car) up Mt. Bizan and got a beautiful view of Tokushima with Awaji Island in the background. On a clearer day, you can also see the Kii Peninsula to the east. Tokushima was a cool city - it had palm trees, tall buildings and an unexpectedly large number of Italian restaurants. All around there were signs, posters, statues, etc.. having to do with the Awa Odori Festival. It looks like fun! If we are still here on the right dates in August when it occurs, we should definitely check it out.