Travelog for: Philly

Melon Pan - a type of sweet bun from Japan
In Japan, our western food is often developed and changed in its own way by fusing with Japanese original culture.
It's interesting. What do you think? 
haha... the plate is cute

Yashima Shrine
This shrine was built in 1651 by Matsudaira Yorishige, the first Feudal Load of Takamatsu. It is the place where to worship his grandfather Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate.
When we visit the shrine, first we wash hands. An old tap is often decorated everywhere in the world. In Japan lots of shrine and temples have "Doragons" like this.
Then I went up to the long steps of stone and looked back... wow!

Ogijima is an island in the Seto Inland Sea. It is a few kilometers from Takamatsu port. It's a very small island just 4km around, about 150 people lives.
Today we go to the island by ferry boat. 

But...
The weather suddenly turned to bad.
We reached the lighthouse in the stormy rain
This is the northernmost tip of Takamatsu city.

Kobe is the 5th-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyogo prefecture.
We changed the train at Okayama station. Here the Shinkansen Express "Sakura" is coming. It's hard to take pictures of them, because they come quickly and stop just a few minutes
After 45 minutes, we reached Kobe. The weather was a little bad

Sakura, the Shinkansen Express train
Sakura N700 Series Shinkansen
Port of Kobe
From the center of the city we walked to the port of Kobe. That red tower is very famous as the Kobe landmark.
The Former Foreign Settlement
The modern-era western style buildings remain standing in the new city.
China Town Nankin-machi
Nankin-machi is a compact chinatown in central Kobe, one of the three Chinatowns in Japan. (others are in Nagasaki and Yokohama) This area was developed by Chinese merchants who settled near Kobe Port after the port was opened to foreign trade in 1868.
"Coca Cola" written in Kanji characters

The weather is a little bad also in Takamatsu, but it's warm. Sakura cherry blossoms start to bloom.
Walking around my host hanachan's house, we can see many Sakura trees beside the streets.
Soon they are in full bloom.


This square building is Takamatsu city Sports Gymnasium. It's Pro Basketball team Five Arrows' home.

Takamatsu Five Arrows

This is my second time visit here
This time I came here to enjoy Sakura. It's a wonderful world

Sakura is full blooming
This is a small Shinto shrine near hanachan's house.
The sky is blue. It's a beautiful day.

Now our Marine Liner train is running across the Seto Ohashi Bridge over the Seto Inland Sea. We'll soon arrive at Kurashiki city.
Kurashiki, this area is kept the old city view of Tokugawa Shogunate period. (17th-19th century)
There are many historical houses beside the canal. These were once used as warehouse of cotton.
"Kura" of the city's name means warehouse in Japanese.
Today old warehouses were renovated as cute shops.
Look at this restaurant Fake dishes made of wax are displayed They looks real

Shamijima - it used to be a small island in Seto Inland Sea, but today the island is connected to the main island by land reclamation.
Here we came in sight of the Seto Ohashi Bridge. Yes, we have crossed the bridge already.
The trains run through the lower, the upper is the express motorway.

The lighthouse of glazing "Setoshirube"
This lighthouse is called "Setoshirube". It means the pilot of Seto (inland sea). They say that the only crystal lighthouse in the world. The whole of lighthouse emits red light by internal illumination in the night.

They say that severe heat of this summer is abnormal
It's unbearable to go out from the air-conditioned room in the daytime. In the evening, we finally started 
Mt. Yashima is a flat topped mountain in the east side of Takamatsu city. We drove to the top. It's about 300m high.
Wow!!

Oboke and Koboke The beautiful valleys located upstream of the Yoshino River.

And we are going to Kochi-city, where we can eat fresh and delicious fish. But it's a little bit early for dinner. So we decided to stop at the small zoo on our way.
This summer is terribly hot and humid. Because of it, many of animals didn't appear in a daytime. Probably they were hiding in their shady place.
Finally we ate Sushi!
Of course, it was great!

waiting for the boat for the island Inujima

Oh... we were in a wrong place. Our boat is coming to the next pier
Run there!

from the window of the small boat
haha... we almost missed the boat.
(forgot to take pictures of our boat...)

Inujima Seirensho Art Museum --- the remains of a copper refinery on the island
Inujima is one of the large-scale art project set in the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.