A travel day today. So it was up early to jam too much stuff that we don’t and won’t need into our too small bags. That accomplished, we trundled off to the local subway station and headed for Kyoto station. Today the plan was to travel southwest to the small port town of Uno, which is the jumping off point for the so called “art islands” of the inland sea. It really feels like we’re getting better at this – we made it directly to Kyoto station, booked seats on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train), located the correct platform, boarded the correct train and efficiently stored our baggage – all with a minimum of fuss and a maximum amount of sweat (the humidity was around 90% as usual – and it was overcast). Lou of course can’t visit a major train station without purchasing some mysterious Bento Box for consumption on the train. This time it was some kind of crumbed meat on a bed of sticky rice with a garishly coloured curry “sauce.” Sooner him than me – I’ll stick to the soy crisp things they sell everywhere.
After an hour on the Shinkansen we changed trains at Okayama to a regional train (the Rapid Mariner train or something like that). Later we changed trains yet again to a local train that was only two carriages long (more like a light rail carriage really) and eventually made it to the end of the line (literally) at Uno Port. It was mid afternoon and scorchingly hot again. Luckily our accommodation at the Uno Port Inn was only a 3 minute walk away. We weren’t expecting much – this was really just a place to stay overnight before jumping on the ferry to the main art island of Naoshima – but we were very pleasantly surprised. Our room was basic – 3 futons on the tatami mat floor with a bathroom down the hall and very little other space – but the place was clean and cosy and the two women running the place were just lovely. They provided us with heaps of information about the art islands but also had some great suggestions for dinner options. They also ran a cafe which sold beer and they made pretty good coffee – so we arranged to have brekky there the next day.
Dinner was (as suggested by the Uno Port Inn staff) at Osaka-ya – a local down to earth restaurant serving combo meals – I had local teryaki fish, rice miso soup, pickled veggies and a super cold beer. The decor was v strange – little figurines everywhere and bunch of weird sketches of people eating. All in all, a cool meal at a cool place.
Later we wandered the streets of Uno. It’s a pretty run down place and not much appeared to be happening – although we occasionally glimpsed people coming and going from nondescript looking buildings that seemed to be full of people eating drinking and smoking – not something that appeared to be accessible to tourists. Then the usual Seven Eleven run and back to futon central.
flyeelookee 