蒜山 - Hiruzen

This is a really beautiful area. Coming from a place in England that is flat as a pan-cake, I've always loved mountains and hills. It adds interest to the scenery and Okayama in general has this in spades.

We left early and drove up using the highway for the first time as you have to pay to use this, but it saved us a load of time and during Golden Week, places get pretty busy.

  

Hiruzen has some amazing view spots and is famous for having Jersey cows. Those who know me well, will know I love my milk and the milk here is amazing.  I know an ALT who works in Hiruzen and she gets the local milk as part of her local school lunch. Lucky.

We also tried some local Udon (I didn't know at the time but Hiruzen is actually famous for its Soba noodles) and those Udon aficionados and Japanese among you might be surprise to know that they serve Udon with cheese on top, made from the local Jersey cow's milk. It was nice and similar to Italian Carbonara, but there was way too much and it soon felt like a chore.