#Okayama

We’re moving on to the next stop: Okayama. The city itself doesn’t have much of interest to offer, apart from the famous Kōraku-en garden, which we already know anyway. Right nearby is the town of Kurashiki with its picturesque old merchant houses along a canal. You can also see the Achi Shrine there - after a tough climb up the stairs.

We bought a couple of little tea bowls in a small shop, from a Turkish guy who had never even been to Germany, but spoke brilliant German and raved about Cologne.

After breakfast, we hopped straight back on the bus to the train station. But we took a quick break to check out Fuji-san (that’s the proper name for “Fujiyama”), which shed its cloak of clouds for us for a few minutes.

We took the Shinkansen bullet train down to Hiroshima. The journey was amazing. The trains are super spacious inside and absolutely tear through the countryside at 300 km/h. They’re also famous for their Bentō, a lunchbox that we obviously had to try while we were at it.

We stopped off in Okayama to check out the Kōrakuen landscape garden. It’s one of the three most beautiful in Japan. We wanted to chuck our luggage in a locker at the station, but they were all full. We’d pretty much resigned ourselves to lugging our bags around, but a young man offered to help and showed us some more lockers in a hidden-away part of the station. It’s unbelievable how helpful the people are here.

For dinner, we had Okonomiyaki. It’s real home-style comfort food made of cabbage, noodles, egg, and bonito flakes. In Okonomimura there are dozens of these little places where Japanese pizza is whipped up just like your mum makes it.