Mamakari | Tokyo Kawaii, etc.

Kurashiki Bikan-Chiku historical area

Posted by: kirin on date

Aug 3rd, 2012 | filed

Filed under: Travel

My husband and I’m back from the trip and I finally start writing a blogpost about my trip to Okayama and Hiroshima!
It was actually a little bit disappointing to see how the local people (Japanese people) reacted to hear that I was going to Okayama and Hiroshima, as most of them probably prefer visiting Hokkaido or Okinawa, if they don’t go abroad. But I have so many locations in my own country that I have never visited in my life, and it’s not a bad idea at all to visit such places no matter how uncool they are. ^ ^;;

Anyway…these are the pictures taken at Kurashiki historical area.
It’s 300yen to ride on a gondola styled boat on Kurashiki river. You can reserve your boat and buy your ticket at Kurashiki Kankou Annaijo, the building that is facing the gondola starting point across the river (canal).

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.

川舟流し１ Kurashiki Bikan Chiku historical area

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!