Kurashiki
Important Preservation District For Groups Of Traditional Buildings; Japan Heritage · Kurashiki, Okayama
A merchant town in Okayama prefecture whose preserved Bikan Historical Quarter, a canal lined with willows and white-walled storehouses with black tiles, is one of the prettiest old districts in Japan. In the Edo period Kurashiki was a direct territory of the shogunate and a rice-shipping centre, and the storehouses, called kura, gave the town its name. Many are now shops, cafes and museums. The Ohara Museum of Art, founded in 1930 by a local textile magnate, was the first museum of Western art in Japan, and holds works by El Greco, Monet, Gauguin and Matisse behind a Greek temple facade. The Ivy Square complex is a red-brick cotton mill of the Meiji era turned into a hotel and museum. Flat-bottomed boats glide along the canal, and the quarter is lit up at night. The Kojima district nearby is the home of Japanese denim, with a street of jeans shops. Kurashiki is fifteen minutes by train from Okayama, where Korakuen, one of the three great gardens of Japan, sits below Okayama's black castle.
Bikan Historical Quarter, Chuo, Kurashiki, Okayama, 710-0046, Japan
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED - CONFIRM BEFORE GOING. The typical pattern: the quarter is open at all hours and is lit in the evening until about 10pm. The Ohara Museum opens about 9am to 5pm and usually closes on Mondays, except holidays. Other museums keep similar hours with their own closing days. The canal boats run in the day with a limited number of tickets sold on the day, and some winter days have no service. Shops mostly open around 10am and close by 5 or 6pm. The traps: Monday closures, boat tickets sold out by noon, and restaurants closing early. Confirm times before relying on them.