Tourist information
JR Kurashiki Station
Exit the train station to the south left from JR ticket collection, overlooking the bus depot. Stay on the upper level, and you'll find the office among the shops to the right west.
JR Shin-Kurashiki Station
Bikan Historic Area
Understand
During the Edo period, Kurashiki did heavy trade with the capital in rice, sugar, and other goods. Later, during the Meiji Restoration, the city became known for textiles. Kurashiki escaped World War II largely unscathed, and as a result, many of the original storehouses, mills, and shops remain in beautiful condition, open to visitors in the Bikan Historic Area.
The effect is delightful — storehouses å kura with lattice windows share space with weeping willows along the banks of the old canal, which is illuminated at night. The canal has led some overly optimistic tourist associations to call Kurashiki "the Venice of Japan". If not that — the city surrounding the Bikan area is as much a concrete jumble as any other in the country — Kurashiki is still a rare piece of old Japan, one that gives a sense of where people lived and worked, not merely the temples at which they worshipped.