The peculiar bus system in the Shikoku mountains is the feeder bus in Tsurugi town.
Several buses run together on the main road in Tsurugi town, and after customers are sorted by destination at a certain point, those buses branch off and go deep into the mountains. I chased one of the buses to see what kind of place it would run. The bus ran quite fast on a narrow mountain road. I, who was good at driving, felt scared that I had to turn back a steering wheel many times to drive up. While stopping to take a picture, I lost sight of the bus. The car navigation system indicated a mountain without a road, and the internet didn't enter. So, I called the town office and explained what I could see, but the staff said, "I don't know where you are." I had no choice but to keep driving. After having run for about 30 minutes, I finally found an old lady in a small village. After having asked the way, I talked with her.
Oto, a village with no sign of people in the mountains, had been so bustling that they called Oto Ginza (Ginza is the most upper-class commercial area in Tokyo, Japan) to collect the harvested tobacco when tobacco cultivation was thriving. Prosperity disappeared due to the cancellation of the purchase by the Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation. The Tobacco Museum in Awa Ikeda tells us about how tobacco supported the remote region's economy and produced abundant wealth. And we realize the ruthlessness of the industrial policy by the country that abandons the remote region easily.
The feeder bus took me to an unexpected place.
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