March 26-30 櫻始開 The First Cherry Blossoms

Interestingly enough, the weather has been warm enough that the Sakura actually bloomed according to this calendar. They usually come out a week or two later, but they were super early this year, and by the time April rolled around, a lot of the green leaves were already showing.

So, true to form, I took bought the Seishun 18 ticket again to do a little train adventure before the new school year started.

This time, I decided to head south to Shikoku, as I would not want to go somewhere warm for the summer break. Then again, as I type this, I'm realizing that the cities I'd want to visit in Shikoku are not landlocked like Kyoto, and would have enjoyed a healthy ocean breeze. Oh well, hindsight.

I decided to use Kurashiki near Okayama as my base, traveling from there to Naruto for a day to see the whirlpools, and then heading up to Matsue for... well, dumb reasons. On my way there, I passed by Himeji, hopped off the train for just long enough to buy a salad and eat it in full view of the Himeji castle before I hopped back onto the train. Since I had explored Kurashiki last time, I took the time to actually look around Okayama, as I had realized that when I did my

3-week exchange back in 2000, I had not actually seen the city of Okayama. I'm pretty certain we went to a school out further away from the city and stayed with families out there, since I had zero recollection of the beautiful castle within walking distance from the train station. Also passed by a (tiny) movie museum, and they had this cute little set on display.

Heading to Naruto from Kurashiki was a bit of a trek. The train rides over a bridge, which offered some lovely views, except that I was sharing the cabin with a school field trip, and the boys crowded around the window enough that this meagre photo was all I could capture of the crossing.

I had originally wanted to do a stop in Marugame or somewhere in Sanuki to have their infamous Udon noodles, but the chance to see the full whirlpools during high tide at 4:30pm kept me in Naruto 3 hours longer than I intended. Frozen Sanuki-style udon it remains for me in the meantime.

The train routes included a ridiculously long (50 mins) transfer wait time at a small train station located in the middle of nowhere. In my boredom, I decided to follow the train tracks to the next station, which was only 20mins away by foot, and was infinitely smaller than the transfer station. However, this station faced a single Sakura tree, and when the wind blew just the right way, I was showered with a rain of pink petals. It was a magical moment I'm glad I got to experience and COULD NOT CAPTURE ON VIDEO. Curses.

For future reference, when you arrive in Naruto, the train arrival time tends to line up with the (hourly) bus departure time to the whirlpool viewing area, so unlike me, one should forego finding lunch around the train station and just hop on the bus first, so you're not stranded for an hour waiting for the next bus. Unless of course, you just sit for an hour and eat a leisurely meal before heading to the more touristy

area for food. Both options are viable. I put no forethought into my travel and spent much too much time staring blankly at a map while waiting for the next bus. Though to be fair, there was no way I would have made 10am low-tide peak whirlpool viewing coming from a 4-hour train ride out of Kurashiki to Naruto, so the fact that I threw caution to the wind and stuck around for high-tide to chance not missing the one and only train connection back to Kurashiki that night was a bit of a gamble. I'm alive to tell the tale, so clearly it all worked out, but I did have a bit of a scare when I thought I missed the transfer at middle-of-nowhere stop.

The next day I headed up to Matsue up in Shimane prefecture. The long, slow way through Japanese countryside. My favourite way of travel by train. There was a 2-hour long portion where the train was a single car. It honestly feels a bit like being in a Ghibli film.

(So, why Matsue? What's in Matsue? I found out too late that it has an amazing museum, so perhaps I may return one day if they have an enticing enough exhibit to draw me out there again. It also has a lovely castle. But seriously, the only reason I went out there was because... when Mostly Walking was playing Nancy Drew: Shadow at Water's Edge, they had to solve a train station puzzle, and they kept having to stop through a station called Matsue. Sean Plott repeating "Matsue" over and over and over again was all it took for me to take a ridiculously long train ride out there just to see it. The castle's nice though, and the lake breeze was blissfully refreshing.)

On my way back to Kyoto, I passed through Tottori to see the sand dunes. Originally, I had wanted to go last year during the Pokemon Go event at Tottori, but my friend and I had discovered too late that half of Japan was also headed there and all the hotels in the area

were booked up. This time I decided to go for the sand dunes (PoGo is no longer on my phone. I needed the memory to record my dance lessons). I must say, the view was splendid, and I really should have taken off my shoes and just walked barefoot up the giant sand dune. My large backpack made me much heavier than I realized, and my feet kept sinking into the sand disproportionally. Going up that hill was a workout. I still have some sand in my shoes and that was almost 2 weeks ago. But dang, that blue water contrast with the sand was spectacular.