Today was our last day and we left Honshu to go to Kagawa Prefecture, Shikoku. Getting the train from Okayama to Takamatsu, it felt like entering a different world. I love the vibe to Shikoku (and the weather, blue skies and sun shining). The view from the train is amazing when crossing over onto the island.

Before we’d left, we picked up a couple of geographically limited food items from Okayama station. Setouchi is famous for lemons (amongst other things). The pancake was nice, I prefer normal Happy Turn (ハッピーターン, try them if you haven’t).

We were off to a noodle making class, specifically udon which Kagawa-prefecture is famous for. We ended up at Nakano Udon School. I wasn’t looking forward to this but it ended up being one of the best things we did.

You get to make your noodles and either take them home with you or cook and eat them upstairs, which we did. (You do end up making more noodles that you take home with you, so best to eat one lot there and take one lot home.)

They were much nicer than normal udon which I’m not just saying because I made them. I sometimes don’t like the sliminess of udon, but the flat nature of these didn’t go slimy. It’s no more than ¥1,600 each (tax not included) – definitely worth it.

We rounded off with an ice cream – wasanbon which is a sugar traditional to the area.

We were supposed to go to Ritsurin Garden after this, but could not get a taxi to come and pick us up for love nor money. After trying 3 different taxi companies a fourth said they’d come but it would be a 30 minute wait. We were 20 mins by car from the station but everyone acted like we were asking to be picked up from Tokyo to be taken there. So, no time for the garden.

Eventually arriving at the station, we had time to kill. We went to Starbucks and enjoyed our surroundings.

The jouney came to an end and we shot off back to Tokyo, stepping through the door at 9:30pm.

I hope you enjoyed this and any questions, please ask.
Emily