One of the problems with photographing Japanese festivals is that the hordes of spectators mean accommodation is often booked out weeks if not months in advance. After being unable to find anywhere or anyone in Tokushima that had a bed or patch of floor I could sleep on, I remembered a friend had recommended I try Couch Surfing on my next trip.

Couch Surfing is based around a website  www.couchsurfing.org and is “a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit.” People host or surf on couches around the world. To the pessimists out there this must seem like a nightmare – invite complete strangers into your home and hope they don’t kill you in your sleep. Optimists see it as a fantastic way to meet people from different cultures and have a much richer (and yet cheaper) experience of travel.

I found a couch surfer (Sarah) who was happy to let myself and two more couch surfers crash on her floor during the festival. Everything worked out great and it was far more interesting than staying at a generic business hotel. Interestingly, Sarah’s apartment was in a building designed by Tadao Ando – most impressive!

Here’s a photo of us all couch surfing 🙂

Couch Surfing - a fantastic way to travel