[Newsletter] Madness and magic on a ferry to Kōbe

▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/77APYyLLvSc

Time for a nice relaxing ferry ride! At least, that's what I thought when I was leaving Takamatsu to return to Ōsaka. What an adventure it turned out to be.

The Jumbo Ferry company runs a ferry service between Takamatsu and Kōbe. The ride takes almost five hours and goes through the Seto Inland Sea, including a stop at Shōdoshima. It leaves four times a day, and the 2:00 pm one was the only one that fit into my schedule.

I didn't even have a ticket, as you'll see in the beginning of the video. I wanted a Premium seat, but they're limited. Unfortunately, you can only reserve them online if you have a Japanese credit card. (In many ways, Japan is still far behind modern technology, despite its reputation.)

And you can't buy Jumbo Ferry tickets with cash at the JR train station or anywhere convenient. Only at the ferry terminal itself. But no regular bus or train goes near the area so I couldn't zip out the day before to make the reservation.

Actually, my plan was to spend the morning renting a bicycle at the station and biking, through the hot sun, to the terminal. And then biking back to wait for the one dedicated shuttle bus back to the terminal later.

But, I took a look at the Jumbo Ferry website in the morning at breakfast in my hotel. It said that there were still seats available. Could I chance it? Should I gamble?

I did. Rather than biking out there, I did my much more interesting back-up plan, visiting the ship-shaped gymnasium from last week's video. Then I had lunch at the train station and got the shuttle bus out to the ferry terminal in the afternoon.

(This is why I'm wearing the same shirt this week as in last week's video!)

All of this is to say that I felt lucky to be on board the ferry, which is named Aoi (meaning "blue"). And I got my special reclining premium seat, barely in time.

The premium section was nice but I didn't spend much time in my seat itself. I was running back and forth around the ferry, inside and outside, looking at (and getting video footage of) all the features and amenities.

There was a foot bath with milky, micro-bubble water. There were several decks to watch the scenery from. There was a food and drink area selling udon noodles.

And a lot more. (Some of it only appears in the extended version of the video.)

The trip had a strange ending, involving a majestic pass under the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, which featured in my Sanyo Electric Railway video a few weeks ago...

...and then the bad thing happened.

I'll let you watch the video but let's just say that ferries can get very windy, and you better watch anything that might blow away. And if there are any feline deities you can appeal to for help, that's a good idea.

All in all, this was a very memorable boat ride. And I think you'll agree that the ¥1,500 premium seat fee was worth it.

▶ TRAVEL LOVERS, PARTNERS, AND MASTERS: Watch the extended 36-minute ad-free version, including a deeper look at my ticket-buying woes, more context and details about the amenities and features on board the Jumbo Ferry, further tales from the shuttle buses on either end of the journey, and more scenery and images from the boat and its sea views → https://patreon.com/posts/137702415

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Everywhere is worth exploring!

–Jeremy