Takamatsu

Last week I went on a day trip to Takamatsu, a small city on the island of Shikoku, just across the Inland Sea from Honshu (the main island of Japan). Even though it's only an hour by train, I had never made it there before.
Shikoku is a very beautiful island, and even though it was pretty cloudy in Okayama when I left, it was all sun all the time in Takamatsu.
I met up with my friend Jo who lives there. She gave me the grand tour and took me up one of the really tall buildings where you can get a great view of the city and the many islands just offshore.
Afterwards, even though Takamatsu is famous for its udon (thick, salty noodles), we went to her favourite Indian restaurant, where I had the best butter chicken I've had in years, along with some unreal cheese naan. Good times!!
Takamatsu is also famous for Ritsurin Koen, supposedly one of the most beautiful landscape gardens in Japan (although it doesn't rate in the top 3). It was very beautiful and surprisingly deserted. I was there for about an hour and a half and only saw 20 or 25 people.
The garden was built over a period of 100 years beginning in the early 17th century, and is the largest garden in Japan.