{"id":11578,"date":"2026-04-25T05:16:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11578"},"modified":"2026-04-25T05:16:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:16:36","slug":"japan-2026-day-10-wakayama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11578","title":{"rendered":"Japan 2026: Day 10 (Wakayama)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I guess I\u2019m about halfway through my trip.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see if this picture from my window works any better. I stitched together several images using \u201cDoubleTake\u201d by Henrik Dalgaard. I haven\u2019t used it in years. Looks a bit, uh, grey.<\/p>\n

\"Takamatsu<\/p>\n

This was another adventure day, mostly because Google maps isn\u2019t good with Japanese ferry lines. I hoped I was going to make it from the train to the bus to the ferry with no problems (and I did). First was getting out a little early to get a morning set on the way to the train. I misread the options and Komeda Coffee didn\u2019t have that much but it\u2019s all I had time for. It\u2019s just coffee and toast or a roll with a very small side. I added a salad.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I got a reserved seat on the train which I really didn\u2019t need to do. I think there were three of us who were in the reserved seats. Not too bad but they did say once we left the Takamatsu area the Suica\/IC card wouldn\u2019t work on the train.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I got to Tokushima station, which I recognized and got my EkiTag checkin. I forgot to do it in Takamatsu. Oh well. It was hard to find and I had to ask two different people.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been to Tokushima station a couple of times before so I had an idea of which bus to take. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever taken it in this direction before and while the announcement said the trains didn\u2019t take the train company IC card, the buses did.<\/p>\n

I made it to the ferry in plenty of time and I had gotten a reserved seat, another reserved seat I didn\u2019t really need. There\u2019s no view from the reserved seat and there\u2019s a much better office spot but at least the chair was comfy. I ate my mini-omusubi with a mini-Coke and fell asleep for a bit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have any pictures of the ferry because it\u2019s really pretty utilitarian and hard to get a good angle. I guess before the Awajishima bridge was built this was the only way to get from the Osaka area to Shikoku and now it\u2019s a bit beat up. I got off in the wrong direction too. My old work buddy Moriwaki and his wife were waiting for me.<\/p>\n

First he took me to the ramen place that the locals go to. He said the guide books all tell you to go to another place and somehow I\u2019d actually been to this ramen restaurant. Wait, it\u2019s called chuukasoba here in Wakayama. I also had the sushi that\u2019s just sitting on the counter. It\u2019s pickled mackerel so it doesn\u2019t spoil. Yes, I forgot to take a picture before I started eating. If you look a few years back you can probably see the same bowl of ramen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then they took me to a seaside area with some interesting geological features. (See how I\u2019m avoiding trying to name the features? I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re called. Wait, I looked it up and it says \u201climestone cliffs\u201d and \u201ccrystal blue waters\u201d.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then we went to Yuasa to see where Japanese soy sauce originated. (Yeah, there\u2019s a bit of an argument but this is in Kansai and I\u2019m sticking with this story.) We got to tour some museums and had some soy sauce flavored gelato.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We had some more time before dinnertime so they took me to their fishing spot. There were lots of little fish in the water that people were catching and other guys were casting out much further for bigger fish. This is my fantasy, moving to Japan and fishing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dinner was at a nearby fried shrimp restaurant. The perspective isn\u2019t really off, the shrimp were huge and tasty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s about it. I\u2019m staying at the sort-of-fancy Granvia Hotel. The lobby is great. The rug in my room needs cleaning, some of the letters on the wall upstairs are falling off, and the walls are as thin as I remember. There was an outdoor lounge illumination (mainly just an outdoor lounge) which was nice. Oh, and check out the display in the lobby.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I got some more Pocari Sweat and Wilkinson Lemon so I don\u2019t need to take another picture. The area around the FamilyMart was full of young miscreants (it is Saturday night after all) and I couldn\u2019t understand the guy behind the register through his thick South Asian accent, but it was fine. That\u2019s it for today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I guess I\u2019m about halfway through my trip. Let\u2019s see if this picture from my window works any better. I stitched together several images using \u201cDoubleTake\u201d by Henrik Dalgaard. I haven\u2019t used it in years. Looks a bit, uh, grey. This was another adventure day, mostly because Google maps isn\u2019t good with Japanese ferry lines. I hoped I was going to make it from the train to the bus to the ferry with no problems (and I did). First was getting out a little early to get a morning set on the way to the train. I misread the options and Komeda Coffee didn\u2019t have that much but it\u2019s all … Continue reading Japan 2026: Day 10 (Wakayama)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11579,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11578\/revisions\/11579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}