April 18

It felt good to know that this morning there was no need to pack up the pack and head out. We were going to have a slow morning and go out to have breakfast at the French bakery. We were on our way back to the hotel when we got a message from Takumi saying that he was here. He was about an hour early so our relaxing morning just turned to needing to move quickly. We headed back to our room and got our small day packs and headed down to meet Takumi. After being on the road for about 5 minutes, we quickly realized that going directly to his museum was not going to happen. We started at Temple 1 and then 2 and then 3 etc….By the time we passed temple 12 I began to wonder what our plan really was. When we saw a sign or a turn off the road to the trail, Takumi would ask, Do you remember this? By the time we were to 17, I had to ask if his museum was getting close. Yesterday, we told Takumi that we would love to see his museum, but we did have to do some planning for our trip to Koyasan and probably shouldn’t devote more time than a couple of hours to see his museum. So here we are 2 hours later and still passing temples. We are also passing walking Henroes and when we do we stop to talk to them. It is easy to see that Takumi is very enthusiastic about this pilgrimage. After taking a very windy road, we mention that we should head to the museum, because we really want to see it and we have some things to do at our hotel. Reluctantly Takumi headed towards his museums, but not before seeing a Pilgrim who was on the wrong road. We turn the car around and offer to give him a road to the right trail. He was appreciative and we realized we just needed to go with the flow. I think to entertain us and prolong our visit to his museum he pulled out his harmonica and began playing it while driving. We were glad that there wasn’t much traffic. Eventually we pulled into a driveway and saw this sign.

We weren’t prepared what was on the other side of the door.

We walked thru the door and our eyes opened wide.

Every space was filled with something that Takumi had made!

At one time Takumi sold the things he had made. We got the feeling that he enjoyed making things more than selling. He was an electrical engineer as a trade so this was more of a hobby. Takumi has so much energy that we understood how he becomes passionate about things, We could have stayed longer checking out more of the items, but all at once Takumi said , “Time to go” He had made reservations for us at a restaurant . So back in the car and off again,

The restaurant was ready for us and quickly brought out the food. It was a delicious meal and we do enjoy talking to Takumi.

We have the use of chopsticks almost mastered.

When we left the restaurant, we didn’t turn towards Tokushima. we headed towards more temples and were quizzed about what we remembered. Finally we said, we really did need to get back. We were somewhat relieved when Takumi pulled on to a bigger highway and not the smaller curvy road that we had been on this morning. Our speed doubled. We mentioned to Takumi that we would really like one of his stickers that we saw back at his place. Unfortunately that was not on our way so I guess we should have asked earlier. Instead of the two hours that we had originally planned turned into over 5 hours. In reality it was a great way to spend our last day on Shikoku. If it is anything we have learned, going with the flow is often the best way.

Evening was spent eating at our favorite bakery, topped off with ice cream at the ice cream shop. For our eventual return to the States we bought bullet train tickets for our trip from Osaka to Tokyo. Now we hope that we figured the proper train station in Osaka. Guess we will find out.

Accommodation Jr Clement Hotel

Walking Very little