Kurashiki Bikan Area

Kurashiki Bikan Historical Area
Sunday, September 16, 2007

I got moving early this morning, against my body’s will. I was so tired from my last outing that I thought I wouldn’t recover but I remembered that I am only 26 years old and then I felt guilty for acting like I was 90 so I got a move on. I met Amy on the train at my station and we rode on to Kurashiki to meet Meghan. Meghan lives in Kurashiki so we were going to spend the day being cultural in the city.

When we got off the train, we were greeted by Meghan and seven other friends. Yea! More people to hang out with today! We set off towards the covered mall area. Since there were so many of us, it was inevitable that we could walk straight to the historical area without any stops. We ran in and out of little stores and bought this and that. The weather was just daring us to have a good time, fully aware of any fun that we might have or great purchases we might buy and that’s when the clouds would drop all of the water that they had, down to they very last drop.

Luckily we made it to the historical area before the rain started. When we got there, we had to go in the cat shop. By cat shop I mean totally creep you out 110% because it sells anything cat you might every want, need, desire, or even just think of. There were cat bags, shirts, trinkets, etc. Plus cat toys, cat food, cat, cat, cat! In a HUGE glass case in the middle of the store were three of the fattest cats that I have ever seen in my life. They were all laying around, the epitome of cat life. In the background was cat music…meowing from the loudspeakers. It was quite an experience. They had a few doggie items but it was mostly cat central.

These are the cats that were in the glass cage. They are enormous!

This was the sign on the glass cage that the cats were in. :)

After the cat shop, we popped in and out of many other random shops and then found the art museum. This museum is a great one here in Okayama. It is called the Ohara Museum of Art. I had such a great time in here. They had many paintings by famous names, not necessarily the famous paintings though. They did have Monet’s Water Lilies and to see it up close was great. I have been lucky in my life to visit famous art museums around the world and see some famous pieces that will stick in my mind forever. Seeing this one was wonderful; to see that famous signature up close took my breath away. To name a few famous artists represented in this gallery, there were Picasso, Renoir, Matisse, Monet, Etc. They also had a small collection of American artists, Pollock for one, and I enjoyed looking at these.

I went to my favorite toy shop today. I had to get a couple of things. I love this place because there are so many handmade toys for all different countries. The bottom decided to drop right out on us though so I was SOAKED when I went in. I felt bad about dripping on the floor, but then I spent some money so I think that pleased the lady. Haha

Amy, Meghan, and I went into some more shops before calling it a day in Kurashiki. I found some really cute things that I would love to go back and get. I keep reminding myself that I live here and I will be here for 10 and a half more months so I don’t have to buy everything the first time I see it. We had exhausted Kurashiki so I said I was going to head back to town. We said goodbye and I started towards the train. I have a good 20 minute walk so I thought it was a good time to go. Down the street I bumped into everyone else who we had left behind awhile ago. They were also heading to the train so we went together.

I wanted to do something else because it was not late but everyone seemed to be heading home. Dennis and I talked about going to play the drums at the arcade but then he had a better idea--going to the MALL!! We jumped on a bus and rode for a little while and we were there. This was a real, live mall. It was like one in America, except a little ghetto. Still, it was so great to feel like I was kind of at home for a little while! I miss things like the mall.

When we walked in, I was greeted by the smell of Starbucks. Ahhhh… Next was The Body Shop. Seeing all of those skin products in English was great. We walked down to a sports store called Sports Authority. It was like Academy Sports. It was so much fun to play in there for awhile. Everything was in English and just comforting. Dennis modeled some of the latest clothes for you.

This is the lone swan that lives in Kurashiki Canal. You might could eat him here, but if you were in England, you couldn't. It's against the law.
This is a little water lily pony outside at the Ohara Museum. You can come and paint your own Monet.

Dennis is modeling the latest fashion from Sports Authority.

He took me into Mega Mart. This is strangely like Wal-Mart, only it doesn’t look as nice…but yet they sell brand naked like Nike and Adidas. It was interesting. We left there and went into some of the other random stores in the mall. We found a clothing store that played American music so we sang for awhile. Then we hit Uni Qlo. This is like a cheap GAP almost. I have one of these down the street from me in my city.

Next came dinner…mall food! I ate a salad from McDonald’s and it was way better than anything I’d eat at McDonald’s at home. Since we had to leave soon, but we wanted to play the drums, we ran down to this arcade we found. It was so huge. We walked around and looked at everything and then we played the game and headed back to the bus. From the bus, we went to the train, and from the train I rode my bike home in the rain. It was such a great day!!! I had so much fun.