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London → Kansai airport (plane) → Tokushima, Shikoku (limousine bus) → Temple 1 (train from Tokushima station to Bando station then a 10 minute walk)
I flew from London (UK) to Kansai International Airport (Osaka) as this is closer to Shikoku than Tokyo airport. There is no direct flight from London to Osaka (there is to Tokyo), so I flew with Qatar airlines and transited in Doha. Click here to see how to get to Shikoku from Tokyo Narita Airport.
On arriving at the airport I went to the Softbank mobile phone counter and rented a sim card for my iPhone 5 that would allow me to make phone calls and send texts, but with no data allowance. ** These sim cards are only available from the airport **
It cost:
One off administration fee: ¥315
Rental fee: ¥110 per day
Local calls:¥110 per minute (free to receive local and international)
Local texts: ¥15 per message (free to receive)
International texts: ¥150 per message (free to receive)
Click here for more information on the rates.
The data would have cost ¥1500 per day (unlimited) in addition to the phone rental and phone calls which would make a very costly bill after 45 days so I decided not to have data included.
I wanted to have a day in Osaka when I arrived so I booked into an airport hotel called Kansai Airport Spa Hotel Garden Palace and took the free shuttle bus there from the airport.
I met Dave at the airport the following day and we took the Kansai Airport limousine bus from Kansai airport to Tokushima. We bought the ticket from a counter at the airport for¥4,100. The website states to book this bus, so I called ahead from London about 1 week before to book, 088-622-1826 (8:00-19:00 local time)… I spoke in Japanese so I’m not sure how good their English is, but there was plenty of room on the bus we took.
followingthearrows 
I’m more worried about being able to get there from Osaka than anything.
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Easy, get the bus that goes from Kansai airport – the link is on the blog and you might be able to hop on somewhere in Osaka. 🙂
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Thank you . I am arriving at Kansai. For some reason I feel like that’s the one part I’m going to screw up. The bus link is great!
Two Questions.
I think I’m using the wrong guide book. I ordered it along with the map and it doesn’t seem to be helpful at all. It’s the opposite of the Camino guide. Any tips on where to get a good guide book?
If I don’t make it in time, and I’m few days short is it easy to get a bus? I keep having this feeling I will get on the other side of the island, and miss my plane due to poor planning.
Thank you again for your blog. I started reading it in 2014, and I leave in 20 days.
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If you’re arriving at Kansai then there’s a bus that goes straight from the airport to Tokushima, so this should be fairly straight forward.
I’m only aware of one guidebook and it’s a book of excellent maps (not so much written directions), but the maps are really what you need. I’m also not sure what Camino book you’ve used, but the Shikoku walk is a very different experience as you’ll find out 🙂 There are trains, busses and taxis depending on where you are and I completely understand the anxious feelings you have pre-departure, but trust that everything will fall into place when you’re there… the hardest part is usually the planning beforehand and the easiest is the walking when you’re there 🙂
Have a wonderful time!
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