Time to leave Takamatsu for Tokushima on the JR Express. The train had two carriages; one for those of us with booked seats and the other for the plebs. There was little or no room for our cases but, the driver allowed us to put them next to his driving compartment. The one and a half hour ride took us through agricultural countryside - it's quite a different environment to that which most people think of when the think of Japan. Rice, Lotus, orchards and every type of veggie that you could think of and more. The flat farmland set among steep sided, forest covered mountains. Sadly, the pollution still persists.
Coffee at Starbucks at the JR station and a 5 min walk to Toyoko Inn Ekimae. We signed in by noon so it was time to find out where the supermarkets and food malls were and have lunch. That done we took the JR train to Naruto - don't bother is my advice unless you intend to go Whirlpool Viewing; which we didn't.
The train back to Tokushima was the school run. The train filled with hormone enriched teenagers with their surgically attached mobiles. Obviously teenagers just out of school are the same the world over. To use a line from a Geordie song: 'They slap their lugs and talked a lot of nonsense" - allegro con spirito e piano. Oz birds twittering make a louder but similar sound - remember we don't understand Japanese so they sounded like some kind of music.
Back at the hotel, having shopped for dinner, we settled in for a long day tomorrow.