Japan Trip – Tokushima
We were in Tokushima for 2 days. The first day we rented a car again and drove out to the Otsuka Art Museum. The museum houses all the masterpieces around the world, recreated in ceramic tile. It was really cool to see everything in one museum. We had seen many of these in real life, but this was fun to see them without the crowds and we were able to really linger.
When we left the museum we were happily chatting and without even thinking Cory pulled out from the parking lot onto the road, but on the side we normally drive. Within seconds a car was coming right at us. Cory swerved right which is what we would do at home and so did the other car! It was super scary and we missed each other and the railing by inches. Luckily we didn’t collide, it was not a busy road and there was no other traffic. i think we scarred the young man in the other vehicle though! We were both frazzled after that and cautiously made it back to the city. We stopped a foot bath to regroup and we decided to return the car and stay in town the following day.
The next day we wandered the town, ate, shopped and I tried an onsen! Cory was a hard no, but he was happy to wait for me. I was quite nervous about this because you have to be fully naked, but I met some ladies on the ship that did it the previous day and really encouraged me to give it a go. You have to wash yourself completely before entering the bath and again after. There were 3 other local women there and no one spoke. They gave me a bit of an eye, probably because I was clearly a tourist and then left me alone. The water was amazing and it was crazy relaxing. I’m really glad I did it. When we got back to the train station we met other people from our ship. Cory let someone else sit down beside me on the train and I had an older gentleman on the other side of me. There were two couples standing in front of me and they were all from our ship. I started telling them all about the onsen and discussing our current relations with the United States. Cory was behind everyone and laughing at seeing all these people around me leaning in to hear my onsen story. When we got off the train and in line for our shuttle, Luis (the older gentleman beside me) came up to Cory and told him he has a very charming wife! I enjoyed that.
Back at the ship the traditional dancers were there again sending us off this time. We saw David and Judy and watched the performance together. Beautiful sunset tonight and then we met David and Dawn (from the bike tour) for a drink after supper.
