After visiting Fukui Dinosaur museum we planned a long drive across the mainland onto the island of Shikoku via causeways and bridges to a town called Takamata. The destination proved ambitious so tiring we broke the journey on Awija island and overnighted at Fukura-Kuo a harbour town. We found our Michi no eki (overnight road service station) was located right in the centre of the main harbour and the on-site buildings contained a large visitor centre,supermarket and gift shop and a booking hall for the “Whirlpool cruises”as well as a puppet theatre that gave 4 shows day with our arrival being just in time for us to catch the last show of the day.

We expected to be seated, curtain rise and show commence but we were surprised to receive an introduction to the performance involving puppeteers, stage colleagues and musicians which began with an explanation of the storyline, how the puppets were manipulated and a tour back stage to see the behind scenes equipment and how they would be used on stage.

We could not leave without taking a boat trip to observe the Naruto “whirlpools” There is a unique phenomena called the Inland Sea which is a massive body of the Pacific Ocean trapped behind 3 of Japans 4 main islands. Twice a day on each tide the 2 bodies of water try to move large amounts of water between each other but the entrance to the inland sea is through a narrow channel no wider than 1.3 kilometres between Naruto ( on the tip of Shikoku island) and Awaji island. This creates whirlpools as the two bodies of water collide.

We could not close this blog without mentioning Grill 8 a steak and seafood restaurant where we had the most tasty tender wagyu fillet steak cooked by the chef on a teriyaki grill right in front of us. Perched on stools at the bar the food just kept coming tasting dishes to start followed by soup, salad ,steak with rice and veg sides culminating in a custard style sweet absolute perfection.