Exploring Hidden Valley of Tokushima
October 15, 2006
A whole day just to myself... or so I thought. I slept till 10 and then read a book for 2 hours straight, perfectly content to enjoy a free day curled in a nice book. Then my host father comes into my room and says we are leaving in 5 minutes for Tokushima. What? The ride was one hour into the middle of Shikoku. We headed over and around huge green mountains, that were slowly but surely turning colors for autumn. The ride was so curvy that I finally begged for mercy and fresh air and we stopped so I could relieve my car sickness. When we got there (mind you I had no idea where we were going) I was suprised at the beauty of a crystal clean river flowing under a wooden bridge held by vines. A bit scary, no doubt. High above the shallow river, me and host family attempted to cross the bridge. The bridge was a huge suspension with large gaps (for falling into the river!). For me, it was easy and I even swung the bridge to scare my host parents. My host mom was freaking out while looking down and practically crawling across the bridge. My host dad was trying to act brave but when I started to swing it, he cried for help. I laughed so hard and vowed never to let hime live it down. My host parents watched my as I jumped and swung around and officially declared that I am crazy. So? That's old news... haha. Afterwards we watched a beautiful waterfall from the mountains and headed down to the riverside. My host father dropped his English dictionary in the river by mistake, and embarrassed about his fumble, he told me he wanted to see if it could swim. When we got back into the car, out next destination was an old Shinto Shrine on the top of a mountain. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain and took a gondola to the top. Looking out onto Shikoku, I wondered why this place hasn't been discovered for it's beauty. It really is absolutely breathtaking. At the top of the mountain we said some prayers for the ancestors and threw some coins and rang some gongs. Then I realized the main Shrine was situated on top of 300 steep steps. I consider myself to be in shape, and I had a hard time with the steps. So imagine my host father. I kept asking him if we should call for an ambulance... haha. When we reached the top I prayed and rang the gong of the ancestors. We then headed back and after the gondola ride, were nicely settled in the car. My host father was still out of breath. Back in Kochi, we went for my favorite dinner. OKONOMIACKI! The day had been perfect. But then we had Chocolate Cake for dessert. And then it was ever more perfect.
