With the urgency to get back to my city base, I didn’t want to walk to the Kurashiki Train Station (where a Shinkansen to Kobe/ Osaka is available). Hisako-san and I had been seeing rickshaws around the Bikan Historical Quarter. I thought perhaps one of the rickshaw (rikisha) drivers would agree. Momo-san did! And he…
Month: October 2018
Clean Street Innards at Kurashiki
Touring the streets of Kurashiki, it was notably praiseworthy to find that not only were the “front of the house” tourist paths clean, so were out of the way “corridors.” It was so refreshing and admirable. It’s the same feeling I get when I go to a restaurant’s powder room and it has been cleaned…
Peach Parfait: Must Try In Kurashiki
Cream and blueberry top plump firm extra sweet slices of local white peach above peach sorbet and peach yogurt within strawberry syrup and chunks of peach at Momoko (Momo = peach; Ko is a suffix for girls’ names). Hisako-san joined me for this perfect end to our lovely walking tour, adjourning early before the typhoon…
Grace at Ryokan Kurashiki
After I booked my Voyagin Tour (Thank you for the recommendation Talltaleboe.wordpress.com) to Kurashiki, I got an email introducing me to my tour guide, Hisako Kashihara. Hisako-san was very helpful; we started coordinating our plan for my visit; upon my request, she recommended a lunch place… Ryokan Kurashiki. I was able to reserve my choice…
Ivy Square, Kurashiki
During the Edo Period, the site of today’s Ivy Square used to be the office for the local magistrate, representing the Shogunate which governed Japan. Later on, this became the site for Japan’s first cotton mill owned by Ōhara Magosaburō, an influential and beloved Kurashiki native who owned several business concerns and would later donate several…
Bikan Historical Quarter, Kurashiki
Sword-wielding samurai’s used to tread these Kurashiki streets back in the Edo period when the Shogunate controlled this port town whose canal was the main thoroughfare for transporting goods to and fro. The Bikan Historical Quarter has been recognized as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, its storehouses made characteristically with white walls…
Old and New In Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter
The antique structure in the Ohara House compound actually has a motion-sensor faucet installed in the bamboo surroundings. “So he told them, “Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom.”” Matthew 13:52 CEV
Kurashiki Handcrafted Gift
The lady vendor by the canal asked for my hand, right after I bought a small hair stick. Romantic right? She was assessing the diameter of my ring finger and right then and there made a small matching ring as my gift! . Reminds me of when we receive Jesus into our hearts, we get…
Denim Street, Kurashiki
Denim Ice Cream, Denim Buns, Denim Sandwiches, drink, and other creative denim-themed products can be found on Denim Street. A short distance away, even the Noren (Japanese curtain in front of a store) which is usually made of traditional Japanese cloth, looks like denim pants! Kurashiki is regarded as the birthplace of denim in Japan,…
Wabi-Sabi: Beauty in Imperfection
Love this beauty concept: Wabi-sabi (侘寂) -Japanese lifestyle of “finding beauty in the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay; Beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete; includes asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.” … How very…
BUTTERFLY IN THE SPRING 