We’re off to Okayama where my sister worked for a year, to visit friends. The night in the hotel wasn’t that bad but it was kind of smoky and cigarette smoke can trigger Mariko’s migraines. The breakfast there changes from year to year but this year it was quite minimal. That’s a very soft boiled egg that goes on the. The miso soup was in packets that required hot water, and the onions were freeze-dried in another packet. I also got a slice of toast and some weak but not bad tasting coffee.

We left Hikari and the station amazingly had three electronic gates. Other than that it really hasn’t change in years, other than the reduced frequency of trains.

Here’s the Sanyo Line that goes from, well, somewhere to Iwakuni. We rode on the train in the other direction. I think it’s an electric train because I didn’t hear diesel engines. There’s probably a pantograph somewhere but it’s hard to see with the overpass structure in the way.

We made it to Okayama with no real problems. This time my sister took a silly picture of herself.

We went to Nana Green Tea for lunch and I made the mistake of getting a latte. Dairy and I aren’t getting along any longer so I felt like I had a rock in my stomach for most of the afternoon. That’s passable taco rice with miso soup that once again tasted like it came out of a packet.

Mariko didn’t even get matcha. She had the ground chicken.

We went shopping in the afternoon and then out to get tonkatsu for dinner. I got something that looked small in the pictures but in real life it was kind of big. Roast tonkatsu on the left, two “bite sized” filet tonkasu on the right. They were both cut in half and each half was more than a bite. Mariko told me I didn’t need to eat the whole thing so I left some shredded cabbage.

And that’s it for the day. Oh, I had a giant ichigo daifuku but there’s no picture of it.