This morning, we said our goodbyes to Steven, Leah, and Zach and left for Okayama. Steven took us to the Shin-Iwakuni station and we boarded our train for Okayama. Once we got there, we had a tricky time finding a place to store our luggage. We had planned to use the coin-operated lockers, but all of them were taken. There was a hotel in the train station, so we headed in that direction hoping that they would let us store our luggage there, even though we were not staying overnight. Unfortunately, they would not store our luggage, but the concierge did tell us about a bicycle rental where we could pay for storage. We tried to follow her directions and finally found it after walking past it several times.

After storing our bags, we made for Karakuen Garden by bus, where the cherry blossoms made for a picturesque walk, with Okayama Castle as a nice backdrop. There were many groups of young people camped out on the lawn, eating their boxed lunches on blankets, shoes lined up neatly along side. My impression of Okayama is that it seemed like a very friendly town. One man even stopped to talk to us (we suspect he wanted to practice his Engrish) and take our picture (which he offered to email to us). We grabbed a quick lunch (I had rice and Charles had noodles) and got back to the train station to head to Himeji.

In Himeji, our main objective was to check out Himeji Castle. We had planned to tour the inside of the castle, but unfortunately, we didn’t arrive in time, as the tour closed at 4 PM. Instead, we walked around the grounds and took pictures of the castle and cherry blossoms before heading back to the station to leave for Kobe.

In Kobe, we located our hotel (Hotel B Kobe) and checked in for our first night in a “Western-style” Japanese hotel. We had been warned that Japanese hotels are much smaller than in the U.S., but it’s hard to believe how small until you see it! We decided to walk to the port area to find some Kobe beef. The walk to the port was VERY cold, but luckily, we were able to walk through several outdoor “market alley” areas, which provided some refuge from the cold wind.

As we reached the port, Charles and I both practiced our night photography skills (Charles being much more adept than I), as we took pictures of the buildings along the port. It took us quite a while to find a restaurant that A) served beef and B) was in our price range. We finally found one and I experienced the best melt-in-your-mouth steak ever! After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel where we warmed up and watched some Japanese terevision.