Andre and Wendy: Okayama

Took the train this morning to Okayama, about 1.5 hours. Were a little worried about our 3 minute connection we had to make along the way, but I guess this is a common connection, a lot of people got off the first train, walked about 15 feet to the train waiting right beside us and got on. Our first good fortune of the day.

Made it to Okayama and split up with Heather, she is staying at a hostel for the next couple of nights while we are in a hotel. Most hotels here have check ins at 3PM, but at all so far we have been able to leave our suitcases. So drop off it is, we are really near the train station tonight, bet we will hear trains later.

Off we go to Korakuen Garden, one of the tree great gardens in Japan. Japan has a real traditional art for gardening, this is a beautiful example. Originaly it was for rice fields and food gardens. They have left a little bit of rice fields and tea plantation for you to see, but now mostly ornamental. One of the lords placed many resting places around the garden for viewing. When we entered the garden a woman started talking to us that worked there. She then asked if we would like a tour. Andre had said to see if we can find a guide, I thought he meant a paper guide that we would follow, no he read that guides will show you around. So, yes please take us on a tour, it is no charge. She was a lovely woman that had actually spent a couple of months in Nanaimo learning English, small world, Heather lives in Nanaimo. The guide was fantastic, she showed us so many things that we would have missed. We really enjoyed our tour, it would have been nice if more things were in bloom, but she did have pictures to show us, so we really saw what we were missing. Each seasons has it's own blooming, we are kind of between them all.

After the garden tour we visited Okayama Castle, which is right beside the garden. This castle is also knows as Crow Castle because of the black exterior. This castle was destroyed in WW2 and reconstruction was done in 1966, another reopening was done in 2022. I was happy for the latest improvements, there is now an elevator up to the 4^th floor, so we only needed to climb 2 floors. We worked our way down for the 6^th floor. Some nice views of the city up top, then different museum type pieces each floor on the way down. It is a quick museum visit as only 1 line on each display was in English, not much reading to do. On the bottom floor it has interactive things, you could ride a horse, practice shooting, and build a castle out of blocks. It was a nice visit.

Next off was to find something for lunch/supper. It is about 3PM now and lots of places are closed. We found a real gem. Their specialty was soba noodles, they are buckwheat noodles and I have had them a couple of times now and they are my favourite so far. Mine were served cold and you put them in this sauce with wasabe and onions, it was really good. It came with tempura vegetables and a shrimp as well, so yummy.

Back to the hotel and we get checked in and go to our room. Yeah, big enough that the bed is not against a wall, it is nice to have a little more room again. We can actually open up suitcases, and they fit under the bed. As small as you think a room is in Japan, it is smaller lol. We rest up and then I start googling what to do at night in Japan. We had planed on visiting a spot about 20 minutes by train from here, but the weather looks terrible for tomorrow so we make a split decision to go tonight and see the lights, 20 minutes to catch the train, an 8 minute walk, lots of time.

Heather meets us at the train station and tells us she didn't tap in with her card she was in such a rush. Well, hope they are nicer than they are in Italy about this, she can deal with it at our next stop. We are at the end of rush hour so don't get seats on the train, but 20 minutes later we get off in Kurashiki, which we have read claims to be “The Venice of Japan”. We walk until we find the canals which have beautiful displays of umbrellas lit up. Along the walkway there are also projections on some of the buildings. We also find the denim district which this area is famous for, unfortunately all shops are closed. This area is known for its Bikan Historical Quarter, where there are white walled warehouses, I really hope we can get back tomorrow to see it in the light.

Oh forgot to mention that Heather want to speak to someone on arrival and they just thanked her for telling them about the card incident and tapped her payment for her. But, on the way back to Okayama we got on a train that we should have paid extra for, it had reserved seats. We realized this about 5 minutes in, crossed our fingers no one came around to check, we are good. A much shorter train ride back as we had no stops and it went fast. So, not sure if we are on wanted posters somewhere after our fiascos on trains tonight, but so far so good.