where I've never been : Japan Day 9

Today was mainly a travel day and it began at 7:30 AM.

After our ride to the train station, we took a bullet train to Nagoya where we had a 20 minute stop. Then we switched trains and continued on to the city of Okayama. Both of these places are very large cities. By then it was 1:30 PM and we then took another train to Kurashiki where we are staying for two nights.

Our hotel is nice but it was a 10 minute walk from the station. After a short rest, our guide took us over to the canal area for an introductory walkabout. The area is quite touristy but very charming and photogenic. There are lots of shops, restaurants and museums in the area which I will investigate further tomorrow afternoon.

In the free time I had, I took quite a few photos of the canal, the boat, and the buildings. My lunch had been rather skimpy so I stopped at a popular place for a cheese filled crunchy thing.

While I was eating it I noticed a sign advertising an 'owl forest'. I thought it was quite a ways away but it turned out it was right there in that building upstairs. Six stores down, there was a cat café with Bengal cats and kittens. They offered a reduced ticket price to see both places so I thought 'why not?'

The Bengal cat place had a 30 minute time limit so I decided to go there first. It was nicely decorated upstairs and the cats seemed to have a fairly good home. There were about eight or 10 other people in there and cats everywhere! Some were sleeping, some were just sitting and others were chasing each other or the toys that were provided. You could also buy something to drink and sit at the table with it. Only in Japan!

The store on the main level had more cat merchandise of every possible kind than I've ever seen in my life! I came back to it later and bought a cloth bag as well as a coin purse.

After seeing the cats, I went back to the owl place and wow, they were magnificent! The room wasn't overly large but there were about 12 birds on different perches. You could get great photos of them.

I couldn't figure out though, why they stayed in place until I saw one try to fly and realized they were tethered to their perch. That changed the experience for me as I couldn't help but wonder if parading people through there was stressful for them. No doubt it is.

When I got out of the building it was getting quite dark so I wandered a bit and took some great night shots.

Then I headed back to the hotel to meet the group for dinner. About half of us went to a nearby place where we ordered pork, one of the specialities of the area. The restaurant had low tables and a cushion on the floor. That was difficult for me due to my back issues but I managed.