Kurashiki

A city of 478,651 people in the south-central part of Okayama Prefecture, where the Takahashi River runs south into the Seto Inland Sea. Most of the plain is reclaimed land and alluvial flats, and flat almost everywhere except around Kojima. The place names give the history away: Kojima, Kameshimayama, Tamashima and Tsurajima all carry the character for island, and all of them were islands until land reclamation joined them into the city that stands today. Okayama, the prefectural capital, is next door to the east, and Kurashiki forms part of the Greater Okayama metropolitan area.