09:22:19 I always enjoy names of Japanese products. Here we have Stevia, which I can only assume is the real epitomy of Steve flavoured products, and Gokuri, which sounds a lot like a skin disease to me.
09:23:19 Today we were leaving the Osaka/Kyoto area and heading to Chie's family home in Hiroshima. For a change, we were taking the slower trains, not the Shinkansen, which also made the journey about five times cheaper.
10:56:44 Here we are stopping off briefly in Himeji. I rather like the perspective in this picture.
11:45:42 At Himeji station, we wait patiently while some Japanese workers very efficiently put our train together.
11:45:52 I wonder what the Japanese equivalent of "To me, to you, to me..." is.
12:06:23 Our train now reassuringly in one piece, we proceed onwards from Himeji towards Okayama.
12:07:43 A rather nice black and white picture of Chie.
12:08:31 A slightly daft black and white picture of me.
12:09:41 Hmmm... I think I preferred the first one.
13:27:44 Here we are in Okayama, where we met our friends Hiroshi and Hiromu who were going to show us around Okayama for the afternoon. Note Hiroshi's rather nice car.
14:26:25 Kurashiki - a famous visitor's attraction in Okayama, which was very nice.
14:26:54 Again, mky camera seems to have decided to take rediculously pale pictures. I wonder if Chie's scarf is confusing it.
14:27:27 This picture shows the huge gulf between neat and tidy Japanese people and scruffy English people, like myself.
14:34:58 A very nice bridge.
14:50:48 A coffee shop by the river.
15:39:21 Back to the river again. As with the temple gardens in Kyoto, I think this was designed to be seen in spring or summer...
15:40:08 Who is that great big oaf obscuring the view?
15:41:12 A rice processor, I'm told.
16:18:30 Blurred, which is a bit of a shame. The sunset over this chemical factory looked quite impressive.
16:26:46 Here we are at Seto Ohashi Bridge, possibly the longest bridge in the world (or at least it was when it was built).
16:29:29 It's quite a spectacle to behold.
16:30:37 It looked to me like lots of Severn bridges stuck together.
16:30:54 I'm sure there has to be a pun somewhere about suspension of disbelief...
16:31:21 Me and Chie in front of the bridge.
16:31:50 Hiromu and Hiroshi and the bridge.
16:31:59 Hiromu and Hiroshi and the bridge again.
16:32:50 There was a nice sunset, but frustrating;y the bridge and the foliage between them almost completely obscured it.
16:37:01 I was trying to get a nice shot of the sunset here, so I took loads of pictures...
16:37:26 ...I'm very fond of arhipelagoes...
16:37:42 The bridge again, from some way further back.
16:38:08 Still trying (and failing) to get a nice picture of the sunset.
16:38:16 ...and yet more...
16:39:02 ...and again...
16:39:12 ...and again...
16:40:59 Yet another picture of the bridge.
16:44:55 The four of us, using the self timer. We're totally obscuring the backdrop, so in a sense it might just as well have been anywhere, but still, I like it anyway.
17:44:55 Heading back into Okayama city centre now, I liked these illuminated trees.
17:45:13 ...tricky to get a non-blurry picture though!
17:58:22 Here we are in the building we were going to have dinner in. I tried to get a picture of the view, but mostly got a picture of my own reflection. Still, I quite like the effect.
18:00:35 In the same building, one of the pharmacies Hiroshi's family owns.
19:50:29 Taken after a (very nice) dinner in an Italian restaurant in the same building.
19:50:44 Same again, but with the flash on.
20:05:56 Taken outside Okayama station, just before getting back on the train.
22:18:36 On the train to Hiroshima, me with some very nice Asahi beer.
22:19:57 I have no qualms about the blatant free advertising. It is superb.
22:25:10 Me and Chie - almost home now!