Woke up at 7, packed our stuff with plenty of time to spare, giving us a good hour of school work before checking out of the rather fancy Kurashiki Ivy Square Hotel, and heading to the train station.
Kurashiki means ‘warehouse centre’, where supplies came by canal to supply the textile industry in the town. Its a beautifully preserved historical town and Japan's premier destination for jeans, as this is the main textile it is famous for.
Mish promised the girls waffles for breakfast - alas! The waffle place at the station only opened at 10… the same time as our train. With 2 disappointed kids in tow, we had to quickly supply an alternative breakfast. A small bakery did nicely, and the girls got both savoury and sweet baked goods to eat. It may not have been waffles, but donuts for breakfast is a pretty sweet deal!
Local train to Okayama, and the just over and hour on the bullet train (Shinkansen) to Osaka main station. Then a metro ride to the Roots Hostel, where we are camping out in a 2 bunk bed family room for the next few nights. Stark and minimal compared to the luxury of Ivy Square, but clean and functional. Dropped our bags in search of food…
Kuromon Ichiba Nakagawa was not too far a walk and we ventured here for lunch. This market is known in Japanese as ‘black gate market’ after a temple with a. Black gate nearby. Said temple was destroyed by fire in 1912, but the name of the market remains. This market is full of bustling lanes of stalls mostly selling fresh seafood or Kobe beef, and a few selling fruit/vegetables and other sweet delicacies. We opted for seafood, and had a mix of crab, scallops, salmon sushi, mixed tempura and eel for lunch. Some more tasty than others, but the 2 winners were the grilled eel and salmon sashimi bowl. One of the stalls was selling puffer fish sashimi, but even Mish chickened out as nobody wanted to risk the chance of being poisoned...
With full tummies, we took the metro to Osaka’s giant ferris wheel. With a metro mix-up, we got off a stop too early, and decided to walk the 20min to get there. A happy accident really as we stumbled straight into cherry blossom lane, a beautiful park lined with blossoms and families picnicking for lunch under the trees.
The Tempozan Ferris Wheel stands 112.5m tall and is one of the worlds largest. It gives magnificent views of Osaka Bay and the cities skyscrapers. Today was clear and sunny, so we were able to see for miles. The Ferris Wheel was a lovely 15minute slow ride to check out the views.
Next to the ferris wheel was Lego land, and as a treat we bought the girls each a small Lego set. They didn’t bring many toys at all on this adventure. Maxine chose a llama piñata and Harriette chose a Tuk-tuk, she is excited to ride in them when we hit Thailand!
Checked into our accommodation, had a short relax and then a Skype call with the grandparents before going to find some dinner. The smell of curry at a Nepalese place was very inciting after all the seafood today, so decision made, and a good one too! Kids ate heartily and adults tucked in too. Bed time now, with tired feet and satiated adventure appetites for today.
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