Kurashiki

We were incredibly lucky for the location of our hotel in Kurashiki. We were right opposite the old city. Strange to be in a high rise building and across the intersection is the start of an old world. We didn't arrive until after dark that first day, so my first view of it was a still river that reflected the soft yellow light of the old buildings. Words could not do it justice. 

Why we arrived after dark had a lot to do with the fact that we had stopped to cycle 20km across the Kibi plains, the legendary home of Momotaro and Ura. We left our bags at the bike station and proceeded to get lost several times. Mari felt terrible but she had only ever done the tour in the other direction (they bike track can be done from either end). Still, we got to see some really cool sights and I was much better on the bike - I didn't run into a pole that day. Small victories. By the time we finished the tour on the bike 4 hours had passed and it was almost dark. 

That night we had the most amazing and well deserved bbq skewers. Mari told us that they are famous to the area. They were so good - some chicken, some beef, some vegetrables wrapped in bacon, and all were juicy. 

The one down side to all this eating out was that we seemed to incur charges everywhere. A lot of the restaurants charge a room fee and a table charge - at one place it was 450 yen! That is like $7 dollars for the privilage of sitting down. Each! 

The following morning, I headed out on a train to visit some gardens before heading back for an afternoon of shopping in the old quarter and trying more new foods. This time it was a crepe like wrap with a sort of citrus turkish delight inside it. It was nice but odd. I also later stumbled across some hot wine. Yes! They serve it to you in a takeaway cup. That is a lot of wine.