Things are better at night! I’ve always enjoyed exploring in the late nights or very early mornings. Perhaps it’s a throwback to my days doing a paper round, getting up before sunrise, cycling through the empty streets and getting my work done as people still slept in their houses. I love the dark and the quiet streets in the English countryside. Far from being scary of intimidating I find them comforting.
However, Takamatsu is a different animal altogether. I love the night here not because it’s quiet but because that’s exactly when the city comes to life. Nightlife in Kagawa will perhaps never rival that of Tokyo or Osaka but if you catch the city at the right time then it's so easy to get swept up in the contagious atmosphere.
The neon lights of alleyways look so bright, the noise from the izakaya’s so loud and the karaoke so wonderfully out of tune. A mixture of people, bicycles and cars meander through the streets and create a chaotic yet welcome bustle for you to run along with or just sit and watch from a distance. The nights in Japan are really unique to this country and each time I encounter this excitement and chaos it always puts me in mind of a Miyazaki movie in full swing.
