Naruto

The following weekend I went to the whirlpools or Naruto. Its only about a 20 minute drive north of the city, so all together not that extravagant. It was just one of those things that I should have done before I left Tokushima, and was surprising that I hadn't yet. I'm still surprised I haven't climbed the temple in my own town, or visited the vine bridges of the Iya valley. But there's still time.

First was a boat ride. In a little boat, for a bit too much money, they take you out to see the whirlpools close up. We drove the boat right through them. It was incredible to watch them form from still water. All of a sudden, a monstrous vacuum. Jellyfish were en mass that day. Literally thousands of them. I wondered what being in a whirlpool must feel like for them. If it was incredibly confusing or not. If they are capable of confusion.

After the boat ride came the underside of the bridge. There is a massive bridge leaving from Tokushima going to Awaji, and eventually to the Kobe area. This is basically the only way to get to Osaka, so if you've ever traveled from Osaka to Tokushima, or vice versa, you've used this bridge. On the Tokushima end, you can enter a viewing area underneath the bridge. You walk out a good distance and look down at the thick glass paneled floor to watch the whirlpools swirl. From this height they are much smaller than seeing them in person on the boat, but they are still impressive.

Having seen my fill of whirlpools, I grab some local sweet potato mochi from a shop nearby, have a snack, and head home.

Unfortunately I lost all my pictures of this when my computer crashed. Fortunately this is the only weekend worth of lost pictures... I'm sorry you wont get to see them tho. I do however have this video of a whirlpool in action. So enjoy.

posted by Living and Teaching in Tokushima @ 8:27 AM Comments: 0