9.9.2018 - Day 25

I woke up sporadically though the night and decided to get up shortly after 6am. I departed into the rain with my rain coat. It wasn’t pleasant and really did not work, but I was prepared to get wet and had spare clothes. While waiting at Kurashiki train station I saw the last remaining sleeping train in Japan, the Twilight Shimikaze stop and continue on its way. Sadly I was busy with my rain coat, so I couldn’t get a picture. My hope is to ride it before it too will be retired.

I met with Jan at the Shinkansen gate at Okayama exactly as we planned. From Okayama the train goes across the bridges to Shikoku. At 9:30am we have arrived at our destination. During the trip we joked that the rain isn’t so bad and that we will make it, but it was a dark humor and at our destination the rain was as bad as it gets. At the tourist information we got confirmation that the rain is going to be bad all day. Funnily enough they didn’t try to dissuade us not to go and instead showed us the routes and where there are great spots. Given that the visibility was visible we instead opted to go see the local castle and then load ourselves in local onsen.

By the time we got to the castle, everything down from our knees was completely wet and it was only marginally better above. The castle was interesting that it was build in an area where sandstone as the base it was seen as quiet an achievement and the builder was hailed as a master given this and his other castles he build. As a historical side-note, majority of castles that you see in Japan came about in about 100 years during the Sengoku-jidai (warring states era – 1456 to 1568).

On our way back to the train station (and from there short walk to the onsen) we ate lunch and got even more wet. The local onsen was refreshing and very much welcomed after spending half a day in rain. We tried everything the onsen had to offer. Afterwards we were considering pressing forward to see more in Shinjuku, but given the rain we concluded that not much would come out of it and headed back.

For dinner we went back to Cuora Kurashiki so that I could introduce Jan to the town and establishment. We chat and then parted our ways promising to give the bikes a try another try. So Jan’s stay was just beginning and mine is coming to an end.