ヾ(*'-'*)Hello♪

It's been a while again. Maybe I have time to post some more tomorrow, but today I wanna continue with the photos of my spring trip.
Today it'll be Naruto. And yes, that's where the anime series got its name from.
I'm so glad that I went. It was awesome and I didn't have enough time to see everything ;o; ...... I hope I can go some other time again :)
Enjoy!~

Naruto - Day 1 (April 8th, 2009):



Welcome to Naruto (鳴門). This is the small (very small XD) station :)
Usually you arrive in Tokushima and from there go by local train to Naruto. Takes quite a while but it's worth it ^-^
Naruto is not only famous for it's whirlpools, but it's also the starting point for the Shikoku pilgrimage (I mentioned 1000times arleady XD ....).
There's also a German house, but I visited that on my second day, so let's not talk about it now :)



On my way to the hotel I already discovered something German, though (*___*)v



There is that stupid passengers' bridge. I hate these things, especially if you have heavy luggage x_X
It was already early afternoon when I arrived at the hotel, so I didn't have much time for sightseeing.
I knew that the whirpools would be quite strong at around 5pm, so I didn't really have any time to go elsewhere before that.
It takes quite a while to get from the JR station to the whirlpools by bus. There's also a famous art museum close to the whirlpools, but for about 30$ entrance fee I decided not to go (especially because I was told that you'd need at least 3 hours in there ... time I didn't have that day).



And then I arrived at my goal. Close to the whirlpools with many different attractions, viewing places etc.
It was incredibly beautiful and the weather was awesome as well (*___*)v



There was a lot of information about the whirlpools etc. :)



Haaa~ paradise. I spent a lot of time just standing, staring and enjoying the different views there! I fell in love with Naruto (*__*)v



That's the famous bridge and below it there are the whirlpools. At that time nothing was going on, though :)



It was very hot outside and I still had quite a lot of time until 5pm-ish, so I decided to visit the nearby Naruto museum (with tons of information about bridges, whirlpools etc.)



Very nice shot of the bridge. The roundish thing on the right is the museum ;)



The German House where I went the next day.



There were TONS of photos of Japanese and other countries' bridges with explanations. I took a photos of that one because as you see it's one in Yamaguchi Prefecture (which is where I live).
Actually it's in Iwakuni where I plan to go in a few days anyway, so I might be able to bring back some real photos of that bridge soon :D



That's a really famous bridge in Kyoto. Some of you might have visited it already?
I didn't when I was in Kyoto last time ;o; .. I took this photo as a reminder (Stupid, go there next time! XD)



That's the art museum I was talking about earlier: The Otsuka Museum of Art
I still have a pamphlet with photos of some of the exhibitions. It looks awesome. I'm not sure if it's worth the 3000yen entrance fee, but I swear, if I have had time, I'd have gone there!



That's the huge white bridge you saw on some photos earlier. The Big Naruto bridge :)



I still had time so I was walking around to take some nice photos.
In the background you can see the Naruto bridge again.



I took many photos of the bridge from many angles.







On my way to another observation platform. Of course you have to pay for almost everything, but it's worth it :)
That was the longest escalator I've ever used by the way x___X
Not good for people with acrophobia x_x



As you can see it was worth the long ride, though XD



The round thingie again which is the museum. The glass thingie is where the escalator ist. Long, huh?



So beautiful ;__________________;



I walked around again and finally reached another observation spot: under the bridge!



I went to the "Uzu no Michi" (the whirlpool road) again to check when the peak would be (17:40 and they're only opened until 18:00 .. oh great! ;o; ... that's Japan for ya!)
The "Uzu no Michi" is directly under the Naruto bridge, so you can walk along and observe the whirlpools from above. Unfortunately that road is only about 500m long, so it stops in the middle of the bridge ;o; ...





It was about 5pm, so I decided to finally go there :)



And that's the view you have from above there.
Now ... today was a "strong day" for the whirlpools, so I was expecting to see really huge ones, but also I went on a strong day and during peak time, I was a little bit disappointed.
Nevertheless it was awesome and I wanna go again. The next hour I desperately tried to take some good shots of the few whirlpools I could see/catch (^^') .....







There was a REALLY huge one, but that's all we could see! As the way stops halfway and only the bridge for the cars goes on, there was no way to see more ...



..... well, of course you have the option to go by boat or ship which is quite expensive, though. (I wanted to do it, but didn't have enough time!)



So .. I tried again to catch some of the smaller ones and take photos of them instead XD











You had some transparent window thingies below your feet as well :)



There's one just starting :)



I know it's kind of boring to just look at these photos. You have to see it live I guess (^^')>



Everybody stayed until 6pm when they told us to leave because they're closing now. After that I decided to stay until sunset and take some more photos.
And baby, it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo worth it!!! So beautiful I almost cried!





The sun slowly disappeared behind that mountain. I think it was my first time to see a sunset like that. It was awesome ;o;











And then the sun went home and I decided to do the same ^-^
After that I decided to stop by a used bookstore similar to BookOff (but even cheaper!!! I wish we had something like that here, too) and I bought way too many (but super cheap!) magazines, books and mangas XDDDDD




And that was my first day in Naruto, with basically only one sightseeing spot, but an AWESOME one!
The next day I had to leave in the early afternoon to go back home, but I used the last few hours to see as much as possible.
You'll see soon :)
Hope you're looking forward to my last day of spring vacation 2009 (^-^)/


☆⌒(*^-゜)ノ~♪see you again♪~ヾ(゜-^*)⌒☆