Day 9 - Kurashiki - 17 Dec 2016

After breakfast at JR Hotel Clement Takamatsu, we set off at about 9am plus. We drove for about 1.5 hours to our next accommodation venue at Kurashiki Kokusai Hotel. Due to the long driving and the lack of interest in the recommended visits in our itinerary i.e. Okayama Korakuen and Bizen, we concurred with the Loh's family to give them a miss.

We arrived at the hotel at about 1030am. As it was too early to check in, we dropped off our luggages and began our exploration at the historical town of Kurashiki (Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter), which was only 10 minutes walk from our hotel.

It was a lovely stroll along the Kurashiki river with few bridges that link one side of the river to the other side. It felt as though you were transported to ancient times, being surrounded by old Japanese architecture but yet, there are many lovely shops that are certainly attractions for tourists like us. We sampled their local produce along the way and tried their gelato as we admired the unspoiled beauty of the historical Kurashiki. I found myself snapping away after every steps to ensure that every corner of the old town could be captured.

Some of them visited Momotaro Karakuri Museum. However, my wife, mum-in-law, J, our kids and myself didn't visit as we saw from the poster outside the Museum that some parts of it might be a bit too scary for our kids. Well, we were just being prudent to ensure that our kids wouldn't be unnecessarily frightened. So, while waiting for them, we just goofed around with the kids outside the Museum.

We had lunch at 130pm. After lunch, we split ways. Our family went back to the hotel in order that the kids could nap while the rest continued their stroll.

Back in the room, we put the kids to bed. As I didn't want to nap and also because I'd wanted to get a magnet as a momento, I went for a walk back at the old town, alone. After getting the magnet, I got myself a cup of latte as I walked back to the hotel. Perfect drink for the perfect weather.

At about 530pm, we drove to Mitsui Outlet Park Kurashiki. It was about half an hour drive. Shopping began the moment we stepped into the outlet. It was like the ladies' Disneyland. Though we didn't cover all the shops, we managed to look at whatever we wanted so far. Our greatest "reward" was our insane purchase at Adidas and Rockport. There were some serious sale going on and we gleefully bought shoes for the kids and ourselves. It was value for money purchase.

At about 8pm, we started to hunt for a dinner place. It didn't take long for us to settle for one at Yakiniku Griglia at Ario Kurashiki. However, the wait was about an hour. By the time we got our seats, we had only half an hour to order our food. Not a problem. My bro-in-law wasted no time, looked through the menu, and more or less had a rough idea of what to order while we were still waiting. Thus, it was a breeze when we needed to order what we wanted. The food was undoubtedly awesome. Thanks to my sis-in-law for the treat as three December "babies" will be celebrating their birthdays this month.

At 10pm plus, we finished our dinner, only to realise that Mitsui Outlet Park was closed and our cars were parked at its car park. Frantically, we walked briskly to the car park and when we got into our cars, uncertainty still loomed whether or not we might be able to drive our cars out of Mitsui. Thankfully, our worry was unfounded. We drove our cars out with ease.

Tomorrow is the last day of our trip. We will be heading back to Singapore. However, as it is a night flight, technically, we still have our morning and afternoon to do whatever we want to do. There won't be any itinerary to follow. Everything we will be doing tomorrow will be spontaneous. Probably, we might still head back to the historical town again and/or Mitsui. Nothing overly adventurous though.