Trip to Shikoku in 2015 spring – Part 6, visiting Oboke gorge and riding Anpanman train.

2015 spring Shikoku
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This post is continued from Trip to Shikoku in 2015 spring – Part 5, visiting Ryugado from Kochi.

After visiting Ryugado, we took Limited Express train again to get Oboke gorge. The train went into Shikoku mountains and Yoshino river was seen through the window

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It took only 30 minutes to get Oboke. We waited for train leaving because we had to pass the track to get the station building.

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There is no station staff at Oboke station. But the information center is in the station and the staff take care of the tourist. She spoke English and took care of overseas tourists too. We were asked the destination and answered Oboke boat cruise. She said we could get there by either taxi or walk. We decided to take taxi on the way and walk on the way back.

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It took less than 10 minutes to get Oboke boat cruise departure point.

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It is also the roadside station. It has restaurant and souvenir shop in the building.

Oboke gorge is quite deep at this point. We had to go down the hill. When Oboke had huge rail storm, water came up just below the building.

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The cruise departed. The boatman guided about Yoshino river that go through Oboke gorge. The boat went down the stream very slowly.

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The cruise is about 30 minutes. When we took this boat, it was chilly. But if you take this boat cruise in fresh green season, I am sure it is very nice and fresh.

We walked to Oboke station after boat cruise. I wished there were trail along the river. But we needed to take a side walk. The road was very narrow but this road is one of the primary road in this area. Traffic was very heavy. I needed to keep my eyes on my daughter.

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After 20 minutes walk, we could see Oboke station over the river.

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We took limited express train again. But we picked something different. That is Anpanman train. Anpanman is very popular anime among preschooler in Japan.

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This was reason why we stopped Oboke and spend a few hours. We needed to wait to catch this train.

My daughter is a bit older than “Anpanman” age. She said she was not Anpanman age and she was wotally not interested in it before we came to Shikoku. But when she saw the real Anpanman train, she changed her mind in one second. She said she really really really wanted to take this train before we finished Shikoku trip. I made an adjustment and booked this train.

Of course, everything was Anpanman in the train.

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The seat had many Anpanman’s character.

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Even curtain had character’s print.

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We found another characters above.

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Anpanman train approached Seto-Ohashi bridge. We left Shikoku.

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I enjoyed the scenery but my daughter is not interested in the scenery. She enjoyed Anpanman world.

Anpanman train arrived in Okayama. We took Shinkansen to get Shin-Osaka and completed this trip.

I tried to put many things in four days trip. It was very busy trip. But all of my family enjoyed this trip.

Comments

  1. Leon Arieh Tabic says:

    Dear Takeshi san
    After a very enjoyable 24 day trip this last March/April, my wife and I plan to return to Japan in October/November 2016 to enjoy the koyo season., for about 25 days. The previous trip covered the area between Nikko and Miyajima, i.e. Tokyo, Ito, Shimoda, Hakone, Kanazawa, Takeyama, Shirakawa-go , Kyoto, Akoh, Bizen, Okayama, and Hiroshima. We had 21 day JR passes, which worked perfectly! We prefer to do different things this coming trip but we do not gave a planned itinerary yet. We will return to Tokyo, Hakone/Fuji (which was too hurried last time!), Kyoto and Nara, and probably Okayama/Akoh (where we have friends).
    We would like some “early input” from you if possible, since this trip, we would like to include Shikoku and Kyushu Islands, if possible. So some basic questions –
    1. Does the normal JR Railpass allow travel on all the lines on Shikoku Island? And Kyushu Island?
    2. For an estimated 4-5 days on Shikoku, will rail travel be sufficient, or would you also recommend renting a car?
    3. For example, is the itinerary you chose for your visit all covered by rail travel and the normal JR Railpass? (Apart from the ferry, which we won’t use, I think).
    Looking forward to hearing from you!

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