Naruto and the 13th

So, yeah, the dreaded 13th. We woke up ridiculously early so that we could check out and catch our highway bus to Tokushima to see the Naruto whirlpools. Well, we made the bus, which was nice. We slept for most of the way there and I woke up when the bus passed through Naruto. Now if we had simply known that this bus would stop in Naruto, we might not have had the bad luck that we did that day. But, unfortunately, we weren't aware of that, so we went straight through Naruto and got off at Tokushima.



Well, we got to the Tokushima station alright (since it was right across the street from where the bus dropped us off). And we were so surprised! We went in, bought our tickets, but then looked around and couldn't figure out how to get on the platform. We could see the area that LOOKED like a place to go through, but there were no machines to take your ticket. Instead this lady was standing in a little booth in the middle of that area. We couldn't believe it! She stamped your ticket and let you through! Of course, we'd never been off of the main island before, and Tokushima is on Shikoku.



Well, we got on the train and it took us FOREVER to get to Naruto station. When we finally got there it was 10:45 and the schedule I'd written out said that we were supposed to catch the 10:54 train back to Tokushima station to catch our next bus there. While I was deliberating, my traveling companion said that we should just go ahead, go see the whirlpools really quick, hurry back and catch the next train back to Tokushima. And being the idiot that I am I didn't even bother to check the train schedule before I agreed.

We went outside to check out how to get to Naruto. We saw the bus schedule and figured the bus would be too slow. So, against our better judgement, we took a taxi out to the bridge. The taxi driver was really nice. When we got to the bridge he told us that he'd wait for us. So we ran inside, paid our 500 yen to get out onto the bridge and ran out over the bridge to get a view of the whirlpools.



Well, luck, like I said, wasn't with us that day and they had blocked off the part of the bridge where you could actually see the whirlpools. Sadly enough, we got a better view of them from the bus on the way to Tokushima(see first group of pictures). So we hurried back to the taxi, quite disappointed, and went back to Naruto station. Taxis are so expensive.

We got back into the station, bought our tickets to get back to Tokushima only to see that nobody was taking tickets. We look around and it just didn't hit us. All the signs were there: the station only had two tracks, it was the end of the line, and no trains were there. There were only 2 ticket machines and one lady working the station. We decided to check the time table (finally) and discovered to our horror that the next train wasn't going to leave Naruto station until 2 hours later.

...wow...

So we asked the lady at the ticket counter if there was some other way to get back to Tokushima station besides a taxi. She looked at us with that look that just screams "You idiots" and told us that there was a bus. She told us how to get to the bus stop and, thankfully, refunded our tickets for us. We went to the bus stop and waited. The bus was a bit late, so we were very tense, hoping against hope that we would get to the station in time.

Well, the bus definitely got us to Tokushima station earlier than the train would have, but we were still 20 minutes late. So we missed our bus to Matsuyama. We went into the bus company office and the lady told us that there was another bus that was going to leave at 3:50 and that we should just get on that one. So we had a couple of hours to just loaf around. So we got some lunch and then headed to a nearby bank since I was running low on cash.

We got to the bank and I gave them some traveler's cheques to exchange into yen. The man who took it from me (the bank manager, I assumed) held it up to the light and looked at it like he'd never seen anything like it in his life. Then he casually walked around and asked random worker if they knew what it was. This made me inordinately angry.

Manager: What is this? I've never seen anything like this before. She's telling me that it's money. And she wants money for it...

Me: It's...a t-r-a-v-e-l-e-r's c-h-e-q-u-e. You know, those things that can be used ANYwhere? You have a sign up that tells me what the exchange rate is for them. See? T-r-a-v-e-l-e-r's c-h-e-q-u-e.

Manager: She wants money for it. (to random worker) Do you know what this is?

Worker: Oh, goodness. What is that? I'm not sure...let me make a phone call...

So, by about that time I'm about ready to either hit something or cry. Since neither would have been very dignified I did my best not to do either. They finally gave me my yen, though. I was glad we weren't in a rush. We waited some more and then about 30 minutes before the next bus was supposed to depart we decided to go ahead and go up to the bus stop and check to make sure we could really get on the next bus since the lady in the office hadn't seemed to sure of herself.

We get up there and my travel buddy took the tickets up to the little booth and I waited nearby with our bags. After a while I decided to see what was up and so I walk up to where my friend is and the lady in the booth is chewing her out for missing the bus, so she snatched the ticket that my friend was holding and went to go change it. By that time I was at the window and she looked at me and my friend told her that she had another ticket and the lady chewed her out for not telling her there was another ticket.

Oh boy.

I'm pretty sure I shot her a death glare. It was then that I decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to speak to the lady so I went back to the waiting area with our bags. My friend came back and we waited some more. We got really good at that by the end of the trip.

Well, we got on the bus and got to Matsuyama just fine. We got on the tram and rode it to the Dogo Onsen area, where our youth hostel was supposed to be. We got off of the tram and got dinner and asked the convenience store clerk where the hostel was. But he didn't know. Gr.

So we ask various other people and they all give us bogus directions before we finally just stop in a hotel and ask directions. The guy was really nice, he gave us a map and showed us where to go. And, of course, it was up this HUGE hill! So we drag our luggage up this hill and find the youth hostel. By this time it's dark, we're tired, hungry, and just ready to sleep. But the old ladies who were running the place weren't very organized and it took them a good half hour to check us in.

What a day, let me tell you. Here's some pictures of the youth hostel we stayed at in Matsuyama.



Next is the Dogo Onsen and Dogo Park.