This is the light in our bus!!! I think they do karaoke in this bus! When our guide got on this morning and starting using the mike it had weird sound effects.

Today we drove an hour out of Takamatsu to an indigo dying place. It was a room in the basement under the man’s house. From the outside it looked like a normal house. The smell was very unusual, a bit like fermented/slightly off plants. This was the natural way to indigo dye not the synthetic way we do it. First we were given squares of plain white cotton which we brushed wax designs onto. We then dipped it into the indigo vats, 5 dips for one minute and holding it out of the dye for 30 seconds. To get the really deep blue we would have needed to dip it 20 or 30 times, but time did not allow us that. Afterwards they washed the wax out with hot water, spin the fabric and two ladies ironed it dry for us, very spoilt, was a fascinating process and the man was very experienced, there were three other Japanese people there who were learning the craft from him.

His blue hands.

These were the hands of a young women who was learning the craft.

Ironing my piece. We then travelled back to the city to have lunch. Most restaurants are quite small but they all have plastic versions of their menu (even the beer has a plastic sample!)

I had a beautiful sashimi lunch, very tasty.

We then went to an Awa Odori performance, they performed various dances to their own music and then got some of the audience up to join them, I slunk down into the back corner!

A few of us decided that tonight we would like a bit of a change from Japanese food and decided to go to a burger place. I have to say, quite ashamed, it was so delicious. The Japanese food is so high in carbohydrates and low in protein its just a reversal of how I normally eat, its very delicious but a bit of an adjustment.

Deb, a lady on the tour, and I went to the hotel bar tonight after dinner amazing views and great cocktails and a few laughs. Good times