Kurashiki is really nice if you like old cities. You got a lot of nice narrow streets with many buildings around which contain stores or restaurants. If you may have watched the live action of Rurouni Kenshin some places will look familiar to you. They used it as a location for the first movie.
After going around the canal area we went up to a temple with many nice Sakura trees and and incredible view over Kurashiki. (March 2014)