The City
Five minutes' walk to the east of the JR station is the attractive Tokushima Chuo-koen , a park on the site of the fortress of daimyo Hachisuka Iemasa, built in 1586. His clan lived in the castle for the next 280 years and created the town that is now Tokushima. The building was destroyed in 1896 and all that remains of the castle today are a few stone walls, part of the moat and the Shenshuku-tien, a beautiful formal garden (Y50), which has been designated a national scenic spot. Beside the garden is the small Tokushima Castle Museum (Tues-Sun 9.30am-5pm; Y300), with informative, modern displays explaining the history of the Hachisuka clan and a large model which gives a good idea of what the castle and its surrounding compound once looked like. Walking directly south out of the JR station along the main road brings you the Shinmachi-gawa . There are several bridges and prettily designed promenades along the river, with places to sit and some clever pieces of modern sculpture - look out for the street mosaics of Awa Odori dancers reflected in the metallic bollards on the bridge Shinmachi-bashi. Boats can be rented from Y500 for thirty minutes at a booth beside the Ryogoku-bashi. Five minutes' walk south of the river, at the base of the 280-metre-high Mount Bizan , is wedge-shaped Awa Odori Kaikan (daily 9am-5pm, closed second and fourth Wednesday of the month). Apart from the excellent giftshop on the ground floor and the ropeway (daily: April-Sept 9am-6.30pm; Jan-March & Oct-Dec 9am-5.30pm; March-Aug Sat & Sun until 9pm; one way Y600, return Y1000), on the fifth floor, there's the Awa Odori Hall (Y500), where there are at least three live performances daily of the city's famous dance (in which you can take part) and the colourful, but missable Awa Odori Museum (Y300). If you plan to do the lot, go for the discount Y1500 ticket that covers all the attractions. On a clear day, it's certainly worth ascending Mount Bizan for the panoramic view, and it's not too difficult a hike if you want to save on the ropeway fee; a route starts from the temple to the left of the kaikan at the end of Shinmachibashi-dori. At the summit there's a park with a stupa, called Tokushima Pagoda , to the memory of the Japanese soldiers who served in Burma during the war and the marginally interesting Moraesu-kan (Y200), a tiny museum dedicated to Wenceslao de Moraes, a Portuguese naval officer and former consul-general in Kobe who wrote many books on Japan. Walk east around the base of Bizan and you'll come to the delightful Buddhist temple, Zuigan-ji . The street approaching the temple has an ornamental stream running down one side and you can see a picturesque red pagoda poking out of the mountainside woods. Built in the Momoyama-style, Zuigan-ji dates from 1614 and has an elegant traditional garden with carp-filled pools, a waterfall and rock paths across mossy lawns leading up to the pagoda. If you want to see all that Tokushima-ken offers without the bother of actually travelling, ASTY Tokushima is a state-of-the-art conference and exhibition hall, some 2km southeast of the JR station (the name stands for Attractive Space in Tokushima Yamashiro), that presents the prefecture's highlights in one place. Head for the second floor of the complex, where you'll find the Experience Tokushima Area (daily 9am-5pm; closed third Tues of the month; Y910), an impressive exhibition with high-tech devices, including simulated bus, bike and windsurf rides. The highlight is a 360-degree cinema in which you are surrounded by the story of three childhood friends who are reunited as adults at the Awa Odori, travelling from some of the prefecture's most scenic locations in the process. Outside the cinema, assistants will help you practise the festival dance routines and play the instruments. In the ningyo joruri section puppets are displayed; shows are performed daily by robots and at the weekends by human puppeteers. Also worth checking out is the "arts village" ( Kogei-mura ) - a large shopping area where you can watch, and participate in, the making of local crafts, including washi paper, indigo-dyeing and lacquerwork. There are regular buses from the bus terminal to ASTY, which take ten minutes. The centre has several restaurants. If you're interested in Bunraku puppetry, known locally as ningyo joruri , head for the historic premises of the Jurobei family, Awa Jurobe Yashiki (daily 8.30am-5pm; Y400), 4km to the north of Tokushima Station. This former samurai residence, with an enclosed garden and display room of beautifully made antique puppets, was once the home of the tragic figure Jurobe, immortalized in Keisei Awa no Naruto , the epic eighteenth-century play by Chikamatsu. You can see part of the play performed here, usually the classic scene where Jurobe's wife Oyumi turns away their daughter Otsuru as a stranger. Live performances are held in the wooden outdoor theatre on Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm, and between April and November at 10.30am on Sunday (call 088/665-2202 first to check). A video of the play is also shown inside a large tatami hall. To reach the building, take a fifteen-minute bus journey from platform 7 at the bus terminal.
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