Old meets new... Kurashiki City.

After spending very jet lagged 2 days at the Superior Labor, we took our next adventure to Kurashiki city. (with Coco's very first train ride!) We decided to continue with the theme of "renting a house" and found this lovely renovated Machiya overlooking the city for a really reasonable price. Traveling with kids is so much easier when we can rent a house instead of staying in a hotel. To be able to cut few simple vegetables and fruits for them as a side meal, make coffee in the morning and have a downtime without feeling like we needed to be somewhere else.

Kurashiki was visually very inspiring city. Old and new colliding together. We were in the middle of "Bikan district" (loosely translates as a beautiful site district) where a lot of traditional machiya and atmosphere of the old merchant town was preserved and appreciated. It almost felt like being in Disneyland when we were in the district. Somehow detached from the real world... in a very nostalgic way.

It happened to be very hot 2 days when we were there so tourist traffic was very mellow and we took easy with our outings... with very very very early morning walk around the town which started at 6am and plenty of analogue time in the house during the hottest hours of the day. We loved feeding Koi-fish at a canal, visiting an old temple, marveling Classiky store, stepping into washi tape store (seriously!!! a room full of beautiful washi tapes), sending postcards, eating delicious panda face desserts...

p.s. note to myself with more we did and felt...
- meeting owls
- being bit by so many mosquitos - Coco got the most bites. :(
- izakaya dinner
- girls playing in Japanese style closet (it's like a bunkbed!!)
- walking through arcade avoiding the heat and sun
- getting girls' the cutest sun hats
- getting myself a handmade hat
- journaling at 4am on a balcony as sun came up
- video chat with Frido's parents
- multiple visits to coin laundry
- the very feeling of Japanese street I remember from my childhood as I walked through the narrow alleyway to a grocery store