Tourguides R Us

Gomen nasai... it's been over a month now since we last posted anything. But with the recent visit of Sarah's sister we've engaged in a flurry of geijin activity, all of which is grist to the mill for a blog site like this. So, what's one of the first things you think about when you have visitors? Taking them on the world-famous bullet train of course.

We planned a trip on the Shinkansen to Okayama, en route to Kurashiki, a small picturesque town about 100km west of Kobe. There are three different types of 'bullet train', but the fastest, and by far the most space-age looking, is the Nozomi. Flashing through the Hyogo countryside at speeds approaching 300 km/h, the train named rather disturbingly after the Japanese word for hope deposited us at our destination in just 30 minutes. From Okayawa it was just four stops on the slow train to Kurashiki, although this journey was considerably more perilous, on account of the terrible smell emanating from the slack-bowelled old lady sharing our carriage.

Now, being British and male, I am already quite fluent in the Japanese vernacular for whiffs and pongs, from chotto kusai ("a bit smelly") to jup-pun matte kudasai ("I'd give it 10 minutes if I were you"), but mere words could not describe the sensory onslaught that was to ensue as the obasan staggered out of the lavatory. Jessica's facial expressions transcended all language barriers as we fought for breathe, trying desperately hard not to laugh at the same time.

Kurashiki is a quaint town, famous for its rows of storehouses surrounded by white walls along the Kurashiki-gawa River. Not unlike a Japanese Bourton-on-the-Water, in fact. After a while it began to rain, so we sought refuge in the nearby Museum of Folkcraft. For 700 yen each we were treated to the finest display of crappy old pots and baskets for possibly yards around. The pots weren't even that old, and many of them not even Japanese. There were pre-revolutionary ceramics from Iran, which might sound impressive, but they only pre-dated the revolution by one year, being made in 1978. I've got punk records older than that.