Up, fed and watered we mounted the iron horse by 9 am which, for us, approaches miracle status. An excellent and fast journey to
Oboke with a 6 min change at Awakawaguchi. The journey of about one and a half hours was through interesting countryside with more agriculture and market gardening than expected; rice everywhere.
The
Yoshino River flows though a spectacular gorge and Oboke JR station is about 20 min walk to the tourist spot where you can get a trip on the more sedate part of the river as well as having an excellent restaurant. The gorge is geologically spectacular and visually stunning from all angles - even the road allows you to see this. The weather was hot and sunny so that the trip turned out to be really worth the effort.
We JRed it back to Tokushima in time for coffee and that yellow cake; I still have no idea of what it is made of.
Dinner was provided by the shops in the basement of a huge department store opposite the station - excellent selections of salads and all manner of Japanese food. The sashimi was one of the best selections I've had to date. We left the store just as an almighty thunderstorm centered over the city; thank G for the foresight of always having wet gear in the backpack ...
Time for Bedfordshire ...
