Kurashiki
Today I got up bright and early to say goodbye to Fukuoka and take the shinkansen to Osaka! I’ve actually already been to Osaka, but my flight back to Paris leaves from there so I decided to use it as my base of operations for day trips around the region. And hey, I can always end the day with okonomiyaki at Dotonbori! I hadn’t booked a ticket for the shinkansen, so I was a bit apprehensive about seat availability, but I needn’t have worried. With a JR Pass, you can simply get onto one of the three non-reserved cars in the shinkansen. A bit of a queue formed while we waited for the train to arrive, but I had no problem finding a place for me and for my bag. The bliss of travelling by train in Japan: the shinkansen covered the 600 km between Fukuoka and Osaka in less than three hours! When I got off in Osaka, I only had to walk five minutes to my hotel, the vaguely-named Shin Osaka Station Hotel Annex (a lot of Japanese hotels have Annex in the name). For a new challenge, I did