Last week Syd, Reni and I took the day off to ride the ‘Ampan-man’ train. Ampan-man is a popular kid’s animation character. Literally translated he is the red bean paste (an) bread (pan but pronounce pun) man. Ampan-man has numerous other ‘bread friends’ too.
The Ampan-man train is a commuter train but with a special carriage decorated with Ampan-man animation and equipped with a play area for kids. The train runs from Tokushima to Takamatsu, the capital of neighbouring Kagawa Prefecture or Awa-Ikeda, located in the west of Tokushima Prefecture and in the heart of Shikoku’s mountainous interior. Reni decided he’d like to go to the mountains rather than the city so we took the train to Awa-Ikeda instead of Takamatsu.
In the morning before we caught the train we went for a walk to a park and bought ‘bento’ lunchboxes. By the time we got on the train we’d just about finished our food. All the exercise had worn Syd out so he fell asleep in no time. While he napped Reni and I enjoyed the view, passing many cherry blossoms in bloom.
From Awa-Ikeda we took another train to Oboke, an area famous for whitewater rafting on the Yoshino River. There were gorgeous views from the station looking over the soft pink petals of the blossoms to the torquoise water of the river below. A lady kindly took a photo of us (below) while we waited for our pick-up.
From the station we got a ride to a hotel where we enjoyed an onsen hot-spring bath. Syd and Reni really love these baths and I must say I am quite partial to them too. Because we arrived in the early afternoon on a weekday there were very few other people there. It was very relaxing and refreshing.
Following our soak the hotel mini-bus driver kindly returned us to Oboke Station in time to get a train to connect with our return train to Tokushima. There were no other children on the train in the Ampan-man play area on the way back so the boys got to play as freely as they pleased and I got to take a nap. It was the perfect way to end a great day!
