"Where Old and New Japan Meet" a Tokushima Travel Page by dlandt

Tokushima is a small city or large town depending on your definitions. Located at the eastern end of the island of Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands, it isn't even big by the island's standards. I would say culturally and socially, being from Japan and coming from Tokushima is somewhat roughly akin to coming from Bedford, Spokane, Geelong or Thunder Bay in one of the English speaking countries.

Despite its small size Tokushima is relatively well known in Japan first and foremost because there is a full prefecture, one of four on Shikoku, which takes its name. Secondly, and much more entertaining, Tokushima hosts a major dance festival every year called the Awa Odori with distinctively dressed troops of dancers coming from all over Japan, and one troop composed exclusively of gaijin. If you find yourself in Tokushima, most likely it will because of something to do with this festival.

In some ways, the Aw Odori is central to the identity of the city, and in the photo you see here, you will notice a public park bench covered with a representation of a hat worn by the female dancers during the festival. Dancer charms can be purchased for cell phones etc. The traditional symbol of the city is the whirlpool, for the whirlpools in the channel, but the Awa Odori is the cultural highlight and raison d'faime of Tokushima.

I visited Tokushima because it is the hometown of my wife, Miyuki. She grew up in Tokushima but moved away almost as quickly as she could, a fact not very surprising since for young people, Tokushima can become very small very fast. Although there are companies and jobs, real opportunities lie in the vibrant neon Kansai, a scant hour away. Tokushima on the other hand, is more of a county seat or provincial city with more staid and traditional attitudes and lifestyles.

My family turned out to be very typical residents of Tokushima, providing me with some wonderful cultural insights into the mind and eye of Japan.

I know it is all the rage to say how great it is to have a cosmopolitan city. I live in one myself and enjoy many of the benefits associated with having a large number of cultures within walking distance, but when I travel and wish to see a place, it is often the case that a cosmopolitan atmosphere is not what I'm looking for. It would be "more of the same" for me. When I am in Japan, I want to see Japan, and the Japanese, not McBistro, McGreekTaverna, McTrattoria, McBurger etc. If you feel the same way, you should love Tokushima.

Tokushima is a small city on the far borders of what you could call the Kansai and as such has languished in the fringes of the Japan that entered the modern jetset world back in the 1970s. Much of what you see if probably unchanged over the years, and you will encounter more in the way of traditional Japan here than you will in other places.

Probably less than 30 gaijin make their home in Tokushima, which boasts a population of 250,000+. Very few people in Tokushima can be expected to speak English, and those that do will have little to no chance to practice. No other language will be spoken at all, not even major European languages, though I did see a French language school. This can no doubt present a real problem for many travellers including myself, BUT, Tokushima can show you how Japan was, and how much of it remains to this day. The side of Japan you can see in Tokushima can fascinate and intrigue you, but also dispel the image Japan has carefully crafted over many years. Gone are the flashing lights and sirens outside of stores, gone are the well and western dressed divas of Tokyo society, gone are the endless beeping electronic devices of the movies. Here, Japan is earthy and real, Japan is still really the Japan that captivated deMoraes.

I hope you undertake to survive the Tokushima experience, because it was an experience well worth having.