Japan Day 4 - Takehara, Rabbit Island, Okayama

 21/03/2023
Takehara, Rabbit Island, Okayama

The first and last time, we ate breakfast at the ryokan's little canteen.

We were so scared to dirty the place, didn't want to trouble the elderly couple.

After getting the grandpapa to courier our luggage to Osaka, we left and moved on...

We moved with a hand carry luggage and I had my overnight Longchamp over my shoulder.

Bye bye Enko River.

To get going, the first thing was to get "tortured" by the reading the train map, dig for coins buy tix.

Almost had the whole train all to ourselves.

At this point we were still very excited over train rides, until after a week later lolxx...

Waited more than 30mins for the train to come...

The toilet in the train, if only our coffee shop toilets are this clean.

Despite of leaving at 10am, we reached Takehara around 1.45pm, so much later than I hoped.

The first place to visit would always be the Tourist Information Center.

This was such a tiny building.

Apparently, an anime series was drawn, based in Takehara.

It's a wet day, my phone dying before anything started.

I knew it was Spring Equinox a Japanese holiday, but I thought it was just a minor festive like our mooncake festival.  Didn't expect everything to be closed.

The town was silent.

Not having Mcdonald's in mind, we peeped into this old little restaurant, took us numerous seconds to find out if it's opened.

This little eatery was run by an elderly couple.  Although we were their only customers, took them around half an hour to churn out food.

We wouldn't had made it without google translate.  Menu with no pics (no clue).

Looking at the map given by the Tourist Information Center while waiting for our lunch.

Darren said this was the best soba he ever had for the entire trip, kind of sad that our chance of going back is almost zero....

Kids' food, hamburger steak, sauce a bit salty, overall ok.

Beef udon, home cooked.

Looking back, I am very grateful for this experience.  I get to see how a neighbourhood restaurant looks like and not chained restaurants in big cities flooded with tourists.

Ulu Takehara... so very ulu...

Despite of not being with a tour group, we had to hurry through this place so that we could get to Rabbit Island in time.

It was so quiet, we should had danced on the road.

Everything seemed to be close to each other, however was still too big for us to cover everything.

My memories in Takehara.

Mother and sons.

We left the quiet town, one hour train ride to Tadano Umi Station and 2mins walk to this Rabbit Island Ferry Terminal.

The nightmare was, we just missed the ferry and had to wait for another 1hr.  It's very demoralizing, we woke up so early, wasted more than 1.5hrs waiting for trains, now another hour waiting for ferry URRRGGGGGG..... 想杀人啦！！！！

Anyway, we gotten the ferry tix, only 360yen.  Not sure if we were right to insist cos it was raining.  Any normal rabbit will hide in shelter right?

This little house was very cute, it's a souvenir shop + ferry ticket counter + luggage storage + mini cafe + photo booth.

My kids didn't want to entertain me liao, so I entertained myself around the cute house.

Not sure if the pink post box was a dummy or real.

Sibei cute.

Bought 2 packets of rabbit food for 200yen each.

1hr wait felt like forever, we were finally boarding the pink ferry.

Even the window panel had rabbit decals.

The rain stopped like a miracle when we stepped onto Rabbit Island.

Absolutely beautiful but we had only one hour on the island T___T

The rabbit were lured by food.  They were however very timid and didn't like to be touch, let alone carry.

There were water pans around the island.

Asians: the rabbits were really cute, we didn't see any sick or injured animals, we enjoyed very much.

I am not racist, just that Caucasians and Asians have different culture and mind set, I have to be honest.  Anything that has got to do with animals is almost a taboo to discuss with Caucasians, I respect that and of course avoid it.

This was a baby bunny, it's so tiny and vulnerable.

It was a pity that we didn't have a chance to stay longer to explore this beautiful island.

Back to the main land, back to Tadano-Umi Station going to Okayama Station.

We had booked all our accommodations through booking.com.

Okayama Guesthouse Orenchi Room C - total S$199 for 2 nights 3pax.

This was an apartment big enough for 7pax.  I forgotten to take pics of the 4 bunk beds.

This tatami room could spread 3 futon beds.

The wash area, WC inside.

It's very small, may not have enough leg room for a tall person.

A small kitchen with proper table and chairs (can die at the previous ryokan without a place to sit and use my laptop).

Behind the kitchen was the bathroom

Everything was great, located very near to Okayama Station.  Only one killer: the mattress was paper thin.  I found extra mattress in the cupboard, topped on and I could still feel the wood ply of the bed, luckily it was only for 2 nights.  Other than that, it was a very good deal for the price.

My dinner 1000yen bento, forgotten what the kids had.  Food was cold, didn't have microwave, almost wanted to try and steam the tray lolxx...

Thanks for reading and will move on to Day 5 for more of Okayama.