Day 16: Matsue to Okayama

 

Day 16: Matsue to Okayama

QOTD:  Are you okay with not going shopping? THB mulls on this existential question…

Weather: mid to high 60s and rainy

Pics:  Breakfast, lots of shots of the Adachi Garden, a bit of lunch and lots of shots of Hisawa dinner

Buffet breakfast at the Tokyu Inn (Hotel?) includes a coffee machine (so THB has a couple of au laits and DB a couple of cappuccinos) and the cutest little madeleine (sp?) shaped omelets, yogurt, toast, and a bit of bacon.

A local train to Yasugi followed by a transfer to the free shuttle to the Adachi Museum. OOOOOPS! There’s a line to get on the free shuttle and the four of us are behind two guys in suits, all waiting to see if there’s room. There’s not. The shuttle driver then points to a public bus in front of the shuttle and tells the suits that we need to take the bus, only $2 each, to the museum. None of this is in English, yet it is somewhat reassuring that the guys we’re following are respectable and know the language.

The bus pulls out a few minutes after the shuttle, with 7 of us aboard, only one other person gets on the way to the museum, there are very few stops, and we get to the museum ahead of schedule (and THB thinks ahead of the shuttle, which it turns out took a different route).

The Adachi has been voted the number one garden in Japan, and THB is here to tell you that the garden in second has a longggggggggg way to go to move up. WOW!!! Picturesque, great color contrast, immaculate, waterfall off in the distance, and the ultimate in eye candy. Must See (higher rating than Highly Recommended)

Of course, THB and DB have not been here before, not sure how that happened except this place is way out of the way. Our suit-friends help us when we arrive to snap up return shuttle reservation cards and E has noted that if you show you’re from out of the country you get half-priced admission at most museums and sure enough we get in for $11pp instead of $22, plus they take credit cards (not the norm at gardens, shrines or museums, even the one that was $30pp).

In addition to the garden (you don’t walk through the garden, just view it from various observation spots), there’s an exhibition of ceramics from mid-century by a renowned chef that is extensive and a great cross-section of a variety Japanese ceramics styles.

After nearly 2 hours, we return to the train station on the free shuttle where one of the other passengers mistakes his bag for E’s and almost ends up wearing women’s clothes the rest of his trip. Lunch from various train station choices: rice balls, a bento box, mochi for dessert, J supplied chicken and onion Chinese buns and wafer cookies, water and green tea, $12

The high speed train (not quite a bullet train) from Yasugi to Okayama is 2 hours long through gorgeous scenery: along a river with green forested hills and mist in the gaps. It is also raining most of the time, and there are the usual train-nappers and kindle readers aboard.

Check-in at the ANA, a lovely hotel with an almost unheard of luxury: a king size bed! Japanese hotel rooms are noted for being small and populated with twin beds. Clearly we’re back in Hyatt Regency land.

E and DB offer to go shopping for food tomorrow (THB wonders what else will come back?) because we leave early tomorrow and are on the go most of the day (obviously, THB is not going to spoil for you loyal readers what comes next). THB also offers to stay back in the luxurious room and work on his posts and rest up. Offer accepted. THB even thought about going to the fitness center and then realized he didn’t have his workout clothes. Unfortunately, later THB realizes he DOES have his workout clothes. Too late!

DB is soooooooooo good to THB: she brings back stuff from the bakery, and the first thing we try is top rated. Top rated mini-baguette with chestnut inside by Bay Area and Copenhagen standards, not just by Japan standards.

Dinner at Hisawa, where we struggle for 15 minutes ordering sake until finally THB gets up and points at what they are drinking at the next table. Then another struggle to understand the first course is at our discretion: tofu soup made at the table, with the items in the hot pot transferred to a bowl of light flavored “sauce.”

After that rough start, we pick up momentum with sashimi, small bowl of noodles, salad, lots of skewers (chicken hearts, chicken skin, chicken with leeks, beef, tomatoes), rice balls with shrimp, rice porridge (great flavor of bacon and eggs), pear ice cream, 6 beers, 2 sakes, green tea, and overall a great meal, $94/couple

Book Review: The Why of Things, Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop (novel). A summer spent at a summer house with a family of now four, the 17 year old eldest daughter of three having committed suicide the prior fall. A mild coming-of-age story for the 15 year old daughter, though really more how the family deals with the healing process. Recommended