Kurashiki = food heaven

As a general rule, my favourite parts of any trip often end up being the serendipitous, at least partly unplanned, moments.

Kurashiki has been no exception.

We're staying here because it seemed a good base for a couple of day trips (Naoshima and Hiroshima). Okayama would have been a bit more convenient, but we were pointed in this direction by the guide book and the lack of suitable accommodation in Okayama - once we got more than a certain distance from the station, we figured we might as well take that extra 15 minute train trip.

We are so glad we did.

We are in a traditional ryokan - and I'm quite positive we've already made some serious etiquette slips, but everyone is nevertheless being very nice to us (the fact that the 4 y.o. says "konnichiwa" and "arigato" very nicely doesn't hurt).

And we had the most fabulous meal on our first night here.

We literally followed our noses, stopping at a yakitori restaurant called Torikei - when trying to find something else - because it just smelled so good. Nobody spoke any English, so we asked for omakase. It was superb. From the bacon-wrapped quail eggs on skewers to the chicken wings to the sashimi, combined with the element of surprise, it was one of my favourite meals of the trip so far.

The waitress seemed delighted with our delight at each dish, highly amused at (and patient with) our attempts to communicate and charmed by the kids (as so many people are), and that added immensely to our enjoyment.

The pics on the bottom of this post are from Torikei. We might just end up there again tomorrow night...

In the afternoon, we had also picked up some of the local specialty snacks - tiny pancakes wrapped around adzuki bean paste. Yum!

Then, this morning, we had breakfast at our ryokan. Rice, miso soup, egg, grilled salmon, tofu, various pickles and accompaniments - it was a great way to start the day.

Today's lunch at Naoshima (ok, not Kurashiki, but I'm taking blogger's licence here) made it three in a row. We hired our bikes and asked at the rental place for a lunch recommendation. We ended up eating the freshest sashimi I have ever had, with sea bream caught by one of the owners (presumably that morning, but the language barrier made it difficult to ask). The miso soup stock was made from hand-collected prehistoric-looking shellfish. The owners let us in to their adjoining gallery for free, which contained a life-sized model of an elephant made out of hay, and gave the kids free toys from a lucky dip.

All of that put us in the right frame of mind and body to go riding around the island in search of art. More on which in a later post.