Anpanman is a very popular comic character among japanese children. Every imaginable product is available in Anpanman design. Biscuits, drinks, tooth brush, utensils, socks, shoes, bags, face masks, bibs, toys, etc. The creator Takashi Yanase passed away in Oct 2013 at the age of 94. His hometown was in Shikoku, Kochi prefecture.
For the tourists, Shikoku has four prefectures and is the smallest main land of Japan. The area is easily accessible via bullet trains and JR train lines with JR pass. The train stations instructions and sign boards are all in Japanese in the sparse-populated suburbs and train station masters speak with a slightly heavier Japanese accent. Nonetheless, it is worth an adventuous visit to the tourist populated towns to see an extremely quiet side of Japan if you are bored with the bustling cities.
Train interiors are decorated with Anpanman stickers and figurines for a partial section of a carriage next to the "green car" (a type of reserved section). There are fixed train timings to book if you would like to board one of these trains. The train we boarded was a 9 am train from Niihama (the quietest town we had every visited in Japan) to Okayama (the interchange to change to bullet train to head back to Osaka).
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| Rubber stamp machine for children to collect stamps in their Stamp Rally booklet from different stations and trains across Shikoku. |
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