8.9.2018 - Day 24

The rain has finally started and it was a monster. About 100 milliliters per hour of water was being forecast for most of Japan. I woke up early for breakfast (Cuore had a stylish and pleasant breakfast as always) and then went to sleep for few more hours as I didn’t get much sleep during the night.

Before noon I went to the town. The rain cooled everything down, but at the same time made moving around more difficult as even with an umbrella one would get wet. First I went to the river canal and visited the old Ohara house. Ohara was a local trader family who was very philanthropic and invested a lot into the arts and just across the canal is the Ohara Museum of Art which was pretty made by them. Following that I went around the city hall, up the hill to Kanryuji temple and then even further up the hill to Achi shrine. Form Achi shrine was a great view on the historical part of the city and surroundings. The shrine itself had a unique structural feature where the inner sanctuary was a bit further from the worship hall and there had to be walled off road to it.

Going down the hill I walked past a shopping street (in traditional homes) and went to Kurabo storehouses where there was a company exhibition on their history and how they became an important industrial company for Japan starting with the Meiji restoration till today. I found this to be a nice description of Kurashiki as the historical Bikan Quarter is build, for the most part, in the Japanese colonial style of the Meiji era (mostly stone houses with white walls and black markings).

After eating lunch I went back to hotel and made my laundry and slept/rested till dinner. At dinner I talked with the hosts about various things and despite my condition (darn cold!) had a great time. Since my friend (Jan Smetana aka XSoft) made it on time to Japan we were all set for tomorrow bike expedition, but with one big problem, the rain was still predicted for the entire region in about 100 milliliters of rain per hour (and it was raining all day already).