On Wednesday morning, I got up, sent Sofie to daycare, and got on the 9:35 bus to Kamiyama. The first few times I used that bus I had to use all my energy just to keep from getting sick on the windy roads, but now I’m used to it and I can spend my time enjoying the scenery. Right around Nyuta there’s an interesting rock wall that I’ve grown rather fond of. The bus doesn’t take the route which uses the new tunnel, so it takes about an hour to get there, but the secenery is different than when you go in a car.

From Tokushima Station to Nakazu (the stop closest to the Kaizen Center) is 980 yen. I always put a thousand yen bill into the change machine, take out 20 yen, and dump the rest of the change into the fare box. It makes a satisfying sound as it falls in.

I messed around on the Kaizen Center’s computer for a little while and then Kudo-san and I left, picked up Mutsumi on our way, and headed up to the Kamiyama Skiland Hotel to eat lunch and take some pictures. Sorry I didn’t get any photos of the two of them! I guess I still have a ways to go before I’m a proper journalist. They farm trout up at the Skiland Hotel, so most of their menu is trout-based. The kara-age set (which is usually chicken) is trout kara-age. The sushi set is mostly trout sushi. I thought the breaded prawn fry set would be an exception, but it too included a serving of fried trout!

This is kind of an aside, but did you know, “fish” (“sakana” in Japanese) is called “binbi” in the local dialect? To be precise, this is the babytalk word for “fish” in the local dialect. My parents, who can’t speak Japanese, know the word “binbi” thanks to Sofie. People tell me that it’s not understood outside Tokushima though…

I’ve put up a bunch more pictures of the Skiland Hotel on the photo album, so please take a look.

After that, we heard that the Michi no Eki had been selling blackberries a few days previous, so we took off to take a look. They didn’t have any blackberries, but they had some tasty-looking blueberries. They also had some blue corn, some decorative squash, and their usual hinoki cutting boards that are so cheap and smell so good. All this in addition to the usual seasonal vegetables. (Is this a commercial for Michi no Eki?? Could be…)

I added some pictures of Michi no Eki to the Photo Album so please take a look.

Now, where should I go to next? If anyone has any suggestions or requests, please let me know in the comments!