The Jukebox Clan Does Japan

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I thought I was the only person crazy enough to suggest the itinerary I planned for today... until @rbjhan did almost exactly the same thing about a month ago...

I'd realised our last day in Kyoto was a Saturday, and fearing even more horrific crowds than a weekday, decided the best thing to do was to activate our JR West Kansai-Hiroshima Area pass, and get out of dodge. We'd slip down and see Himeji castle, then head on to Kurashiki to see the old canal area, have dinner there, then a night time ride back to Kyoto. These were to be stops on the way back up from Hiroshima, so it bought as an extra half day in Osaka at the end of the trip, which worked well.

I booked our tickets Kyoto - shin-Osaka, and shin-Osaka - Himeji, but left the rest open, as we didn't know how long we'd spend looking at Himeji castle, oe when we woud be coming back in the evening.

The plan was a 7:06am express out of Kyoto, connecting to a Shinkansen getting us to Himeji by 9am.

We got to the platform nice and early, and noticed all the trains on the opposite platform were delayed. Strange for JR.



7:06 came and went, no train. Announcements that our train was 6 mins late, then 8 mins, were made, and I could see some JR staff getting quite frantic. At about 7:20 the dozen or so of us on the platform where told we needed to head upstairs... and when we got there, we could see the ticket gates were closed and no one was coming in.

The next instruction was we had to leave the station. That was sub-optimal given our plans!

There was a full emergency team at the stairs leading to the platform opposite ours - the one in my photo of "the nice quiet station"...

Levon got online, and found a Reddit group on Japanese real time disaster reporting (!) and disovered there was an unknown package on Platform 5, and all of Kyoto JR lines and subways were suspended.

Later as the posts there updated, he even spotted himself in the background of a photo of the hazmat response team! (white shirt on the right)



The package was a box about a metre long, and the emergency services were taking no chances.



The planner in me took over. We needed to get to Osaka to make that connection where our reserved seats were on the 8:15 departure or our day would be knackered. Shinkansen trains were still running, but our area pass didn't cover that leg. No point blinking, I brought out the credit card, went to a ticket machine, and bought four tickets on the next shinkansen Kyoto - Osaka. $125.



It kept us on track, and on time. Not enough to trigger an insurance claim, and no way of being compensated, but time is a finite resoruce when you are travelling, and this was the only soloution to keep our plans working.

Off to Osaka we went, with our 45 minute lazy connection - where we were supposed to buy breakfast! - cut to just 15 mins. But it worked.

 

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It was a beautiful day when we arrived in Himeji. The sakura there still had plenty of bloom. We walked up the main street and went into the castle around 9:30am, and the foot traffic was very light - no waiting time at all.



It really is a beautiful setting, and although the climb up the keep is quite physical, it's worth it for the views out across the city



Once again, I couldn't escape the feeling how lucky we were, to be here at just the right time to see the blossoms all around. It was perfect.









As we descended the castle, the inbound queue had grown significantly, and the climb up would take longer, be slower, and more crowded. If you're planning to visit, try to get there early.

We were done by 11am, although you could spend a bit longer if you lingered over the information displays and curios.

 

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I thought we'd be in Himeji till around 2pm, doing lunch there, but with our early finish we were off to Okayama on the shinkansen by noon.

I knew there wasn't a huge amount of things to see in Kurashiki, so we elected to take a look around Okayama for an hour or two. Levon wanted to rest his feet, and asked if it was okay if he used his rail pass to take a shinkansen as a mobile arm for an out-and back trip, and I couldn;t see why not, so he headed off to... Hiroshima and back, and caught up with us around 6pm.

In the meantime, Oliver and Lily and I headed on a local train to Kurashiki.

This was a real gem of a place. An old canal port with a warehouse district that is now a tourist area, it felt like some of the edo post towns we'd seen, but with a lot less tourists, and shops that we enjoyed milling around in.














It was a great way to spend a few hours relaxing, and just strolling around the place.

 

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From the garden of the local history museum, where we slipped in around 6pm to use an after hours toilet, there was a lady visible in a circular window, doing handicrafts.



It was one of those scenes that felt quite surreal...



And was just magical



Around the streets were other small views that caught my eye





including a bakery selling Miffy the Rabbit shaped cakes...





Levon made it back to us with about 30 mins to spare, and we headed off to dinner

 

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Dinner was at a place called Kamikura - I'd spotted this on Google Earth, and once again Wendy's sister came to the rescue, helping us by making a phone booking on our behalf.

HOME | 神くら

kurashikikamikura.com

We were seating out the back in low chairs on tatami mats, and had the most amazing meal - everything was just right. Each of the kids went a different tempura, and I tried a Kamikura Gozen, which highlighted the mackerel and seasonal vegetables from the Seto Inland Sea.






If you find yourself in Kurashiki, do have a meal there - we agreed that it was probably the best meal we have had in the whole of the trip - topping even the Tokyo engagement dinner.

We were done by 8pm, so strolled back to the station, to head back to Kyoto.

 

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Confession time.

We were tired. It was Saturday night.

Getting off the shinkansen at Osaka to ride a limited express the last stop to Kyoto seemed a waste of time.

No one looked at tickets on the bullet trains. I mean if we slept through Osaka by accident, the result would be the same, right?

Er, no.

The automatic gates at Kyoto won't let you out, because the area pass isn't valid for Shinkansen rides in or out of Kyoto. And the ticket collectors at the manned booth are not silly. They know what you have tried to do.

You don't get a fine.

You get told you must go back to Osaka, and get off the Shinkansen and onto a JR local train there.



Which is full when it pulls into shin-Osaka, so you have to stand all the way back to Kyoto.

Lesson learned.

Mea culpa.