-Shop cute Japanese products and cool products from Japan. This cute blog is about Japanese kawaii, kawaii Japan, kawaii fashion, Japanese pop culture and more. It's a kawaii blog from Japan, Japan blog in English by a Japanese girl.

Nowadays mt masking tapes have become so popular that we can buy them at various shopping malls in Japan.

But I’m not sure if this Kurashiki Machiya (Machiya is a traditional town house) tape is only available in Okayama…

I liked how they displayed the Kurashiki Machiya tapes.

I also found some cute Moomin tapes.

But what’s most exciting was that they have a desk in the shop and dozens of masking tapes and simple small paper bags to be decorated with so the shoppers like us can experience what it’s like to play with masking tapes! I love to do such things!! It’s free, of course!

There was a note asking only 1 bag per person and we should consider for the other people who wait to do that, but there was no one else but us in the shop then. So I was able to spend enough time to choose which tape to use among dozens of kawaii tapes.

While I was devoting myself to this work, some customers entered the shop and I felt pressured because I thought I looked as if I occupied this desk. I thought I had to finish it sooner because everyone would wish to do this.

Anyway, I ended my work considering for the others who might be waiting for me.

Then I asked my hubby to take these pics and we left the desk immediately to yield to the next person, but there was no next person, surprisingly. They all left without playing with the tapes…:O I could have played with tapes for hours if I were allowed to make more decorated bags…it’d be nicer if I had made more bags and put some souvenirs in them to give to my friends.

Changing topics, we had a Udon breakfast in Kurashiki.
Bukkaketei Honpo Furuichi

My cold Udon was only 350yen in the morning. (They open from 7am.)

My hubby’s set meal was 500yen. Besides that, each of us had a shrimp tempura for free, thanks to the coupon we got from a free local magazine we grabbed somewhere.

It was good, reasonable and speedy. Quite nice for a breakfast. It seemed the restaurant is loved by the local people as well.
I’ll keep writing more posts on my journey so you can see some other parts of Japan via TKE. ^ ^
Cheers~~
Kirin

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It’s so tranquil and peaceful to have a ride on this small river. I think canal is more appropriate to describe such a small river. Anyway, it’s called Kurashiki river.

Some of the readers may need extra time to download some big photos, so I’ll downsize pictures…sorry!

I also took a video from the boat. ^ ^

It was good the weather had been so good while we were travelling in 10 days, although it was very hot everyday.

Some cafes…we didn’t have a chance to rest there, though.

A real estate agency with its appearances being suited for the area. I wanted to go in to check the interior but somehow there was a heavy air that didn’t seem to allow us to open the sliding door for no actual need of searching a land or property to buy, rent or invest. lol

There is a backpacker hostel in the area so you can stay in this house at a reasonable price. (3500yen per person for a shared dorm room)

I will never forget about finding something kawaii while travelling. ^ ^ I found a chopsticks store that had many different chopsticks and kawaii chopstick rests. Being more practical myself, I don’t shop chopsticks that can’t be washed in a dish washer, there were nothing I could buy from a store like this.

I personally found it so kawaii…It’s a Tai (sea bream) shaped chopstick rest that costs 1470yen. Well…I don’t feel like paying as much as 1500yen for a tiny chopstick rest though. :p

Some more nice and cute chopstick rests…250yen is reasonable.

These chopstick rests look like Japanese sweets (wagashi). ^ ^ I thought each was priced at 300yen or so. Sounds good. I should’ve purchased some of them as a souvenir. Sometimes I feel satisfied with taking pictures and completely forget about shopping. lol

It’s so hot and fatiguing to walk around in the sun. We needed to rest for early dinner. We settled in Tsuneya, an Izakaya in the Bikan-Chiku historical area.

There was a Japanese garden seen from the connecting room that is open for a group for their private use. I thought it’d be great if I can eat and drink in the private room with close friends watching the Japanese garden being lighted up nicely…I only knew that there was a small Japanese garden when I had to go to a washroom outside the building. It was kind of embarrassing to cross the small garden in front of the group of people in the private room to go to a toilet. haha!

We’ve wanted to try this fish called Mamakari in Okayama, as it’s so local and unique there. This is a pickled raw Mamakari fish. (I don’t know Mamakari’s English name.) People call this fish Mamakari because they feel like asking for more rice (mama = manma meaning rice, kari meaning kariru = to borrow) because the fish tastes so good, according to what I read. The raw Mamakari fish dish was great but I didn’t think it makes me feel like craving for more rice. It rather makes me crave for more alcohol. lol

We also tried a baked and pickled Mamakari dish, and then I got the feeling of craving for more rice! lol

Both dishes tasted great and I wish we can have them in Tokyo as casually as we did in Okayama…
It was already dark outside when we finished dinner and so we enjoyed strolling in the Bikan-Chiku historical area. (To tell you the truth, we were waiting for getting darker as we wanted to see some night view. :p )

Actually this is the building in which we bought the boat tickets.

It was quiet but safe to walk around the area in the evening.

Some people were walking a dog, some people were strolling and tourists like us were still taking pictures. ^ ^;; It was a relaxing evening, but the photos I took are not as good as what I’ve seen there, as you can imagine. :p But I hope you enjoy reading part of my journey!

I’ll continue to write more posts on my trip to Okayama and Hiroshima.
Stay tuned!
Kirin

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