The next stop on John?s great tour was a smallish town called Kurashiki. My plan was to arrive there in the evening and stay for one night, check out the sites of the city in the morning and move on to the next stop in the afternoon. I got to the city?s central station at about 8 o?clock and set out to find the hostel that I had booked. Finding its location proved harder than expected. Armed only with the map in my Lonely Planet (for those of you not familiar, the Lonely Planet is a travel book full of useful information, and not so useful maps?they are very simple), I walked for a good while, in the dark, carrying my heavy pack the whole way. Finally I came to a hotel where I stopped to attempt to locate myself on the map. There was a man standing outside the hotel who I attempted to ask for directions. He then asked, in English, who I was and what I was looking for. As it turned out, he was the caretaker at the hostel I had reserved, although we were in fact, far from it. He informed me that there had been some electrical failures at the hostel and that guests were not being admitted. Instead, those with reservations were being put up in the hotel in front of me, at the same price as a hostel bed. So, to make a long story short, I ended up staying in a traditional Japanese style room (much more comfortable than a hostel bed would have been, no doubt), one that would usually have cost about Y10,000 ($100) for Y3000. I think I did pretty well.

The next morning I checked out and set off to explore the sites of this city. The ?sites? in reality, consist of one district of the city known as Biken. Although Kurashiki looks similar to other Japanese cities at first glance, it features a small section that resembles a traditional Japanese town. For walkers only, Biken includes many small restaurants and shops selling the cities various locally made textiles (I bought really cool pair of tatami [straw] sandals). It also has the best art galleries in Japan, including one that houses original works from Picasso and Monet. Now I?ll admit, I?m not the biggest art gallery fan, but Picasso?s paintings are rather weird, and I do like weird things, so I liked them. One gallery also had a large section on ?contemporary? Japanese art, now that stuff is really weird.

After I?d had my fill of weird art, I packed up my gear and headed, this time only a short distance, to my next destination, Okayama. After arriving at the station it took me some time to find the right bus, but eventually I made it to the hostel that I had booked. It was one of the stranger places I?ve been to: no locks on the doors, large open tatami mat rooms to sleep in and a 10 o?clock curfew. It wasn?t busy, only one other guest in my room, a Dutchman named Ivo. A very talkative character he was, a school teacher by profession who was on a two week (or so) tour of Japan. Soon after we met he revealed he was hungry, as I was hungry too, it only made sense that we seek food together. And find it we did, at a Pizza Hut nearby. I would have preferred something, perhaps, a little bit more ?cultural? but the flying Dutchman wanted pizza, so pizza it was?and beer of course, he was Dutch after all (they drink a lot of beer right?). We spent the evening chatting and sharing travel stories, a jovial conversation indeed. Afterwards I went for an evening walk to check out the city and the castle, then got lost on the way back and had to take a cab to the hostel, luckily just some weeks prior my Japanese class had been on the topic of ?giving taxi directions?.

The next morning I embarked on an adventure out of the Lonely Planet. Up to that point I had been generally quite pleased with the book?s recommendations. Therefore, when I saw that there was a cycling tour one could do just outside of Okayama, I thought it a good idea, as I enjoy a spot of cycling from time to time. According to the map provided, the tour featured a large variety of attractions: temples, shrines and the like. In reality, this aspect was a bit of a let down; most of the shrines weren?t that impressive, and the many ?ancient burial mounds? turned out to be just hills, not very interesting. The ride, however, proved to be an adventure nonetheless. I spent a large portion of my time doing my best not to get lost, and in the process, managed to get lost numerous times while navigating myself through the maze of rice fields and orchards. After seeing all the sights I attempted to find my way back to the train station and ended up heading in the wrong direction. This I learned after asking a local (also on a bike) for directions. This guy ended up really saving my tail and as he rode with me all the way back to the station. He spoke some English, and I humoured him with my Japanese. So all was good. I caught the next train out and set off for Kobe, as I had a date, and didn?t want t be late.