Local dances, local ramen, and more to love about Tokushima.

When last we left our traveling reporter Masanuki Sunakoma, he’d just finished summiting Mt. Bentenyama, one of Japan’s most unique mountains, having arrived earlier that morning in Tokushima Prefecture after traveling from Tokyo to the island of Shikoku on Japan’s first full-flat overnight sleeper bus.

Making his way back into downtown on the rental bicycle he’d gotten at Tokushima Station bright and early that morning, he made his way over some of the 138 rivers and waterways that crisscross through Tokushima City.

Masanuki was on his way to the Awa Odori Kaikan, a museum and cultural center focused on the Awa Odori, a dance festival that’s been taking place in Tokushima since the late 1600s. Originated by peasants dancing in the streets during the samurai era, the Awa Odori is held every summer and features troupes of performers doing lively and gracious dances as they march through the city and spectators cheer them on from the roadsides.

▼ Awa Odori Kaikan

▼ Route from Mt. Bentenyama to Awa Odori Kaikan

In addition to exhibits about the festival and its history, the Awa Odori Kaian also has daily Awa Odori dance performances. When Masanuki pedaled up, he was still a little early for the 11 a.m. performance, so before heading into the museum he paid a quick visit to Bizan Tenjinsha, a Shinto shrine located next door to the museum.

Founded in 1809, the shrine is dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, a deified scholar held to be a god of learning. As such, Bizan Tenjinsha is often visited by students getting ready for high school/college entrance exams and people engaged in other academic endeavors. Masanuki doesn’t have any tests of his own coming up, but he was intrigued by the shrine’s unique omikuji fortunes.

▼ The ones on the right in the photo here.

Omikuji are paper strips that you draw at random and which contain your fortune according to a ranked scale. At most shrines and temples there are seven tiers, but Bizan Tenjinsha’s special omikuji brutally simplify things and are all either daikichi, the luckiest fortune ranking, or kyo, the absolute unluckiest.

There’s even some showmanship to them, as you have to unfold multiple parts to get your fortune…

…and Masanuki breathed a sigh of relief when he saw he’d gotten daikichi (大吉).

Now it was time to head to the Awa Odori Kaikan, where Masanuki bought a combo ticket for the museum exhibits, dance performance, and access to the Mt. Bizan ropeway for 2,640 yen (US$18), which is 660 yen less than buying them separately.

Starting with the museum section, there are photos and explanations of the festival and its history, plus spots where you can drum along to the Awa Odori music and take photos that digitally insert you into a ren, as the dance troupes are called.

As interesting as the exhibits are, though, the real highlight is, of course the live Awa Odori performance from the museum’s resident ren, Awa no Kaze.

This isn’t a purely passive activity for visitors, either. The good-naturedly self-aware lyrics of the song that accompanies Awa Odori famously state “The fools who dance and the fools who watch are fools all the same, so why not dance?”, and in keeping with that philosophy, as Awa no Kaze’s performance goes on guests are encouraged to stand up and join in.

Next to the museum is the bottom station of the Mt. Bizan ropeway, with gondola departures every 15 minutes that whisk you up the mountain for sweeping views of the city.

On clear days you can see all the way to Awaji Island (home of the 120-meter [393-foot] long Godzilla statue) and even the Wakayama Prefecture mainland on the other side of the Seto Inland Sea. Even on a day with some lingering marine fog the view is beautiful, and since the ropeway runs until 9 p.m. between April and October, it’s also a popular date spot for couples coming to see the city’s lights after sundown.

After coming back down from the mountain, Masanuki’s stomach informed him that it was time for lunch, and he’d already decided where to eat: Inotani, Tokushima’s most famous ramen restaurant.

▼ Awa Odori Kaikan to Inotani

Inotani is credited with popularizing Tokushima ramen with foodies nationwide. Characterized by an extra-thick and opaque brown pork stock/soy sauce broth, Tokushima ramen is rich and heavily flavored, and that distinct character meant that even though Masanuki was there on a weekday afternoon, the place was packed, with some of the customer cars parked out front having out-of-prefecture license plates

▼ The line of people waiting inside the restaurant for seats to open up.

Masanuki selected a bowl of the chuniku (medium-sized meaty) ramen for 800 yen. Once he had a seat he handed his meal ticket to an employee, and soon after that they placed this beauty in front of him.

The broth and pork were immensely delicious, and the noodles were fantastic too, invitingly chewy and with a subtle sweetness to their dough. Hardcore Tokushima ramen fans say it’s even better with a raw egg cracked into it, sort of a ramen version of tamagokake gohan, and Masanuki made a mental note to try it that way when he has his next opportunity.

After he finished eating, rather than hopping back on his bike Masanuki hopped on a boat.

As we mentioned earlier, Tokushima is a town that was built along its rivers, and not far from Inotani is the dock for the Hyotanjima river cruise.

▼ Inotani to Hyotanjima Cruise Tour Boat dock

The roughly 30-minute cruises leave every 40 minutes between 11 a.m. and 3:40 p.m., with adult tickets costing 600 yen. Having seen the city from the top of Mt. Bizan a few hours ago, zipping around at the water level made Masanuki feel like he was really getting to see the many aspects of the town’s beauty.

A different pressing work project meant that Masanuki needed to spend a chunk of his afternoon working on his laptop in a cafe, but he did manage to sneak away long enough to pick up a snack at Atariya, a sweets shop in front of Tokushima Station.

▼ Hyotanjima Cruise Tour Boat dock to Atariya

Atariya’s specialty is obanyaki, a disc-shaped pancake-like confectionery filled with anko (sweet red bean paste).

Not only was Masanuki’s obanyaki grilled to perfection, the anko, which Atariya makes itself in-store, was outstanding. Considering that Atariya only charges 100 yen for them, they’re shockingly good.

Masanuki then spent some time meandering around and soaking up the atmosphere until dinnertime, which brought his next chance to try out a local Tokushima specialty at Hayashi no Okonomiyaki.

▼ Atariya to Hayashi no Okonomiyaki

Hayashi no Okonomiyaki bills itself as an okonomiyaki (savory pancake) restaurant, but the dish they’re really famous for is different from what you’ll find in Hiroshima or Osaka, the two towns most associated with okonomiyaki. Instead, what really brings diners to this place is the mameten tamayaki, which is more commonly known across Tokushima as mametama.

Mametama is similar to Osaka-style okonomiyaki in that the ingredients are all mixed together before being flat-grilled (whereas in Hiroshima okonomiyaki ingredients are cooked in layers which are stacked together as the final preparation step). The mametama twist is that red beans are mixed in with the batter, giving the dish a touch of sweetness and a captivatingly varied texture. Masanuki could easily see himself putting mametama into his regular dinner rotation if it was something you could find in Tokyo, especially with the sweet-and-spicy sauce that’s drizzled over it. Hayashi’s version seems to be considered an especially tasty mametama, and the restaurant quickly filled up with customers as Masanuki ate.

Having finished up his far-from-the-station sightseeing for the day, Masanuki returned his bike to the rental counter in the underground bicycle parking lot next to Tokushima Station…

…and then walked to his hotel for his first not-in-a-bus night of sleep since leaving Tokyo.

Sleep well, Masanuki, because we know it’s only a matter of time until your next overnight bus adventure.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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