Okayama and Kurashiki

 

En route to Furashiki, I got off the train to have a nose around Okayama. I heard the Korakuen Gardens were very beautiful and decided to have a three hour wander. However, things got derailed (pun intended) when I left my wifi charger (rented) on the Shinkansen (bullet train). As per the usual, I asked a policeman where lost and found was and he promptly escorted me to the section two floors below.

This, being Japan, after a few paragraphs of google translate, I conveyed the lost property to the person in charge. More phone calls, iPad discussions later with station managers and voila! They found it en route to Hakata. They asked for my hotel details, called the hotel to see if it was ok to receive it then they  organised it to be delivered. I wish everywhere worked like this. Life would be so much easier. 

Anyway, the gardens were only a 23 minute walk away. I did try the tram, but a lot got lost in translation and I was heading in the opposite direction, so decided to get off and clock up my steps. The gardens were beautiful and one of the top three in Japan. I wonder when people say top 3, does that mean it’s obviously not number 1? Anyway, worth the walk and detour.

I had never heard of Furashiki before my travel agent, who organises every step of the way, presented my itinerary with it included. I’d never been so why not. It sounded interesting; good ryokan, very quaint, lots of art galleries and museums for such a small place, a canal and the epicentre of Japanese denim, plus enroute to Naoshima, where I wanted to go. No one speaks a word of English so even less touristy.  

Furashiki has about half a million population and was a merchant town in the Edo/Meiji periods. Many of the old warehouses have been converted into small museums, restaurants and small hotels  I stayed in a traditional Japanese Inn called a ryokan. This is my room in the photo with the ryokan garden. Some walls are still paper so there’s a heater in each compartment/small room of your big room. You wear slippers for the main area, separate slippers for the toilet, and another pair for the main building. I mean OCD by definition but everywhere is very clean.

This Ryokan Kurashiki was quite difficult to book  I understood why after my first Kaiseki (Japanese traditional multi course meal). The chef is great! 

This is the menu if you can’t figure out what those things are:

Of course traditionally you turn up wearing a Yucata which I wore with the covering Haori. The shoes didn’t fit but I tried. I felt quite smug until I faced a roomful of Japanese in jeans. But hey, I followed instructions and the owner was grateful. 

 The second night was very good, too. Until, that is, confronted with three bowls of liquid, I drank the tempura dipping sauce by mistake (honestly, they were varying shades of brown) and the manager nearly fainted. I am very well acquainted with Japanese cuisine but it was not obvious. 

The museums were pretty impressive for a small town. Ohara museum has a few buildings and houses many of the usual suspects (Monet, Picasso, Rothko, Miró, and so forth and so on, Japanese masters, ceramic collectibles etc).

Now onto the denim stories. Japanese denim, to denim aficionados, is the very best denim. Adopted from the Americans but improved by Japanese artisans, it is much sought after and quite expensive.Momotaro can fetch up to 2000 US dollars for jeans in some shops. This is the area where it comes from. 

There’s a whole street devoted to it! There are denim stools 

You can even eat “denim” ice cream since indigo is edible.

Of course, being quite a shopping enthusiast, I purchased a few pieces (not the momotaro)and showed the photos to my sons. Obviously they asked me to purchase them some items. The shop didn’t have dimensions associated with sizes so this is when things got quite complicated. 

I trued them on and the boys said they couldn’t really see the sizing with me wearing the jackets. So I tapped a young man’s shoulder on the street (he was with his friends) and since the Japanese are incredibly helpful, I google translated a message asking him if he could try a few sizes of a jacket so I could take a few photos.  He obliged but I think his friends found it very amusing. 

Still, my sons couldn’t get a sense of sizing. So with their measurements, the store salespeople decided to try another way. 

I mean, A for effort and enthusiasm! It worked! 

Purchases made, I had to smile a little bit thinking about this time in Furashiki. It was hugely enjoyable and entertaining. 

Off to Naoshima tomorrow.