We leave the whacky Momotaro Museum and still have a bit of time to kill before our boat ride on the canal. Like Onomichi, this place feels like it’s off the radar of the Western travelers but very much on the local Japanese radar. It seems these more countryside kinda places are where Japanese folks take vacation within their own country. Probably to get away from the big cities where they live. Which are also the ones that attract most of the tourism.

I can’t thank Bob from Guest House Maya enough for the recommendation to come to these smaller cities, it has been such a distinct difference in scenery and people. It feels like a whole other trip now. We’ve slowed things down a bit too, which is nice. Or maybe we’re doing the same amount of shit and it just feels slowed down in these more rural places.

There is a group of Japanese girls in traditional garb wandering about Kurashiki now.

Moment to moment here there is a strikingly beautiful scene. And the weather is perfect.

Queenie can’t resist this little cat drawing. We have to get coffee.

We go into an old old building that’s been retrofitted as a cafe. We chill for a minute with some coffee, matcha tea, cheesecake and some.. sweet cubes? It’s all outstanding

 

Ok it’s a boat time! We take our tickets to the pier and a couple of fellas in straw hats help us into the boat. Oh we get straw hats too. We’re right up front! Behind us are six young Japanese girls. The tour is entirely in Japanese and the 6 of them in unison all go, “Ohhhhhh!”, “Uhn-huhn”, “Ahhhhhh” at everything the guide says. Queenie and I have no idea what’s going on but it’s hard not to laugh at their reactions.

It’s selfie stick time! I click in my phone and go on a romantic selfie rampage. Only to later find out that my selfie cam went to some dark mode that I don’t even know how to get it in, and we actually got no selfies the whole boat ride. Didn’t this happen in Burma too? But that was a whole different phone. Whatever, Samsung Galaxies have a secret dark selfie mode that I have no idea how to get into or out of, except for restarting the phone.

I think these are the two best ones? I dunno

The front facing camera is fine though and the slow, tranquil paddle-pushing down the canal with Kurashiki reflected in the koi filled waters yields some beauties

Koi right beside us, I can almost touch em

 

Oh it’s that egret again! Any luck fishing buddy?

This egret is so cool

The place we just had coffee. Remarkable building.

These gangsters are waiting to help us off the boat. That was nice. Good perspective on the place from inside the canal.

We decide to head back to the hotel, take a break before dinner and actually get up to our room. We stop in a few souvenir shops along the way. One of them is a cat store with only cat music playing over the speakers and incessant meowing from all the cat toys in the shop. How the hell can anyone stand to work in this place?! I didn’t last 5 minutes.

Alright suns on the go down. We start heading back to the hotel. Oh but here’s my egret pal! He dgaf. He’s so cool, I want one.

We start to leave.. but look how cool he is!

Totally used to people at this point.

We get back to the Royal Arts and get a key to the room. The elevator is all glass and looks out to the street. Shit be fancy. Crack the door to our room and are pleasantly surprised to see that it is a mega baller, extra spacious corner room. Two unnecessary queen beds, a great view and a gynormous bathroom with a 6 headed hydra shower and separate jacuzzi. Yessssh, thish will do nicshely.

Narcopiggy sets up a mini bar for us to enjoy with some local beers and a lil Murphy’s Mark.

I finally get a shower in. Ok what the fuck is up with my phone’s selfie cam? It’s a vacation. We need selfies. How can we properly document our existence without fucking selfies?! Reset phone, aaaaand we’re back.

Whelp it’s dinner time and we’re craving some bukkake udon in our face. Moe gave us the scoop on some sweet bukkake spots around town last night. We break out our bukkake map and take a look. We can just walk it from here.
We’re on the bukkakase…