12 November 2025
Station takeover
Omotecho shopping street
I have already done a full comparison of the station area and the covered shopping streets on both sides of the station area. The winner by a landslide is, station area. It has the most shops and restaurants and department stores by a considerable margin. It has taken over from the older part of town.
First I went to the wrong side of the station, on purpose, where there is a poor person Shotengei, with people smoking even, it was called jumble of cursive Japanese characters passage. I could not read it, although google maps refers to it as Old Sanyo Do.
Next up I walked through some dark streets and found the main drag of Omotecho shopping street, it has dinosaurs. It is a step up from Old Sanyo Do, but its no Takamatsu. I could have had dinner here but I was looking for where the rest of the city is and before I knew it I was back at the station, where there are hundreds of dinner choices, triggering options paralysis.
First up, lets go down Old Sanyo Do.
Not a huge amount going on, more than Tokushima, less than Takamatsu.
The situation gets worse as you go on. People were smoking along this corridor in front of the no smoking signs.
I followed this river for a while, the lights make it hard to see stairs.
Okayama has quite an extensive tram system, featuring trams between 50 and 150 years old, probably.
Now it is time to walk the length of Omotecho. It has trees. I have portrayed it as unfairly quiet.
Now I will have to look up how to spell terror dack tall. Pterodactyl. I do not know why there were dinosaurs, this is not Fukui (refer to Japan11 trip).
As you go along, the floor tiles changed.
Someone has rented a store to accuse the city of bullying them, in great detail. This is only half of it, they have actually rented 2 store fronts alongside each other. The English says, "Town of Bulling" with the fun typo, but also "Don't Bullying Me!".
There is also a crossing Shotengei if you get bored of the main one.
Back near the station, and this is an underground area near the station. A combination of closed restaurants and restaurants with lines, but I had decided to find my dinner in this chunk of underground street.
And so ramen it was. I added numerous vegetable based extras. Not bad, the Tokushima ramen is still the winner on this trip.
Tomorrow is a kind of hiking day, I will start my watch and do the stats, but there is a castle along the way.