Kurashiki no Ryokan

Day 58

I woke up at 07:30, not hungover, very grateful for that after the last couple of days! After thanking the hostel for a wonderful stay, I walked to Hiroshima station and got help from the jr workers. They told me to go to track 4 and head towards Mihara > Kurashiki. The train was about 3 hours long, I had a lot more stares than usual because no one on the Japanese country side ever meet any westerners. Kurashiki is absolutely wonderful though, here is about 20 degrees, good food and I live in the traditional district that is meant to resemble japan in the early 19 century. Check in isn't until about 18:30 so I went for a long walk and looked at the local shrine, the riverside area and had some fried chicken made by two old women. Best chicken I had in my entire life for 300 yen. Tonight is a guest introduction event in the common room, and I will do my best to introduce myself in Japanese and speak with the rest of the guests here. Apparently this is something that is done in traditional Japanese guest houses to make everyone feel comfortable during

their stay. Tomorrow I will head to Osaka and stay there for about a week or something like this. I'm going to meet up with Jon, the British guy I met in Hiroshima. He forgot his toothbrush over there so I am delivering it to him while traveling north!

Scratch that! Jon came to Kurashiki today to take pictures of the historic quarter. All of a sudden he walked into the cafe and asked for his toothbrush. This was a lovely surprise and we ended up spending the entire afternoon talking about how perfect it all looks. Even the trees that would normally be left unattended in someones garden is being kept in pristine condition. Like living works of art, they stand tall over the rooftops and even though its winter they are bright green.

The hostel I'm staying in is a traditional Japanese inn, it's called "Ryokan" Here we checked in at 18:30, had a short introduction to the house rules, drank tea together and then every guest took turns

to introduce themselves. I was the only non native there so when it was my turn I just told my name, age, how long I was staying in Japan and excused my poor language skills. They seemed very interested in Sweden and a retired banker tried his best to study English every day. He could have a good conversation and we talked for some time before I headed to dinner.