Oh! Yumm.
There's no name for them.
You can only get them here.
These are such a treat.
We are in Kurashiki, Japan.
Kurashiki? But it's kind of spelled Kurashiki.
This is sometimes called the Venice of Japan, and if you're wondering, why?
The answer just went behind me.
This town has some really unique characteristics that we're going to explore today, so I guess
let's go see what the day has in store for us.
You can get a seat on one of the boats for only 500 yen, which is a bargain and probably
why they're already sold out for the day.
It's only early afternoon and we did not get a seat on one of those,
which I'm really bummed about.
We always say it's worth having something to come back for.
If you hadn't heard of
how do you say it?
Kurashiki.
Ok.
If you hadn't heard of Kurashiki before, you probably don't live in Japan.
It's known as being the birthplace of denim here in Japan and there are so many denim
themed shops, it's a lot of fun.
I'd heard that there's denim themed food, and we're kind of in search of the blue food,
and we haven't seen any yet, but we're looking - in particular, blue ice cream.
I want some blue ice cream.
What does that taste like - denim?
I mean, I don't know. It tastes blue, of course.
What does it taste like? Blueberries?
I don't know.
We'll have to find out.
We're trying to find out.
This little dog is adorable.
Well, so far the town seems really cute.
A lot of cafes and even more shopping.
So much shopping!
If you love shopping, you've got to come to this town.
It also has some really unique characteristics that we teased a little bit earlier, and we're
going to head to one of them right now.
We have heard that the museum here is amazing, so even though that wasn't something
we had planned on doing today, we have to check it out.
There are apparently absolute masterpieces stored right here.
So surprising.
We've got to go find out.
Also, we may not be able to film anything, so we'll report back.
That was an impressive museum.
It is so surprising to find so much Western Art here in a somewhat small city in Japan.
Yeah, there were works by Manet, Monet, Picasso, Cezanne, numerous other Impressionists, Pisarro.
There were tons.
It was really - that is an impressive collection, so if you do come to this town, we highly
recommend the art museum, and it has a beautiful setting, and a really nice garden.
Kurashiki is known for denim, and Japan is known for selling all
sorts of things in vending machines. They've combined it here.
You can buy all sorts of different kinds of face masks in denim.
One thing the Okayama area is known for is white peaches, and I absolutely love white
peaches, and they have white peach ice cream that we managed to find.
I'm really excited to give it a try.
White peach ice cream.
It's really bright and creamy. It's delicious.
When you're walking by and the bread smells fresh and there's a bunch of people streaming
in the front door, you have to go try it.
It's not blue though.
No.
No blue as far as we know. There might be blue.
Oh my gosh, it smells SO good.
Bread made with whole wheat & chocolate. Blueberry-raspberry chocolate.
Cranberry, frambois, & chocolate? Cream cheese and cranberry bread.
That sounds amazing. We're getting that.
These look and smell amazing.
There was a constant stream of people coming in and out of the shop.
They sort of feel like they have a bagel texture.
It's like a bagel dough, but lighter, so I'm expecting this to be a lot less dense.
Nothing blue, but I don't think we care.
I'm so excited.
This one is a focaccia basil with some kind of German cheese.
Really soft.
Oh my gosh. I need another bite.
We keep eating things like this in Japan.
Things that look like they're going to be super dense and heavy and they're just light
and fluffy and delicious and it's like the most amazing surprise.
This tastes sort of like a super light, like a light as air, pizza dough.
It's delicious.
It's like a Japanese Bagel. It's just really fluffy and the cheese is built in.
You don't have to spread it on. It's great.
Just real quick, here's the cranberry one.
Yumm.
This was a perfect choice.
One is savory and one is sweet.
The cranberry one is not tart at all, and it's absolutely delicious.
These are such a treat.
Highly recommended.
So I just stepped back inside to find out what these delicious
little bread things are called.
There's no name for them!
I said, are they like a bagel?
No, no. Original. You can only get them here.
You have to come here and try them. They are delicious. Wow.
What'd you see?
Peaches hanging on strings!
Really? Yeah.
This is seriously just the cutest town.
It's so picturesque.
All these alleyways everywhere, and the architecture is so very interesting.
Such a blend of wood and glass and tile, we think.
I love it.
There's so many locals who are here doing selfies and wearing traditional Japanese clothing,
and I just love it.
It's a great change from all the temples and the palaces, and...
[hey, we recognize this! Cool.]
I mean those are all really nice, too, but a break is definitely appreciated.
I love this.
So cool.
Hardly any Western tourists here.
This is pretty much entirely the Japanese and us, which is amazing.
I know we said that there's some great shopping here, and I know what you're thinking.
It's probably the same stuff you've seen everywhere else, right?
No.
For the most part, the stuff that's made here is done by local shops, and we are finding
such unique things that we won't find anywhere else in Japan.
This is a great place to shop for gifts or a little memento for yourself.
Just such different stuff.
Now, of course there are shops that carry things that you'll see elsewhere, so you might
have to seek them out a little bit, but when you do it's worth it.
Really cool stuff, and of course lots of denim.
Lots and lots of denim.
Well, this was a really fun break.
I really enjoyed exploring the city today.
Is it the Venice of Japan?
Well, I'm not really sure that anything compares to Venice, to be honest.
Well, you can be the judge yourself, actually.
We've got an entire playlist for Venice right here, and you can decide.
Click the link.
Check it out.
This link over here.
Some great videos.
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!