Spring Vacation: Okayama

Hello!

Since it is spring break and I needed an excuse to get out of the office for a while, I went to Okayama for two days. Okayama is about 2 hours and 20 minutes away from Kochi by bus, or rather longer by train. It's not a major tourist destination, but I consider it a fairly large transportation hub since it is one of the places where the Shinkansen (high speed train) stops.

The main things I went to see in Okayama were Okayama Castle, the Korakuen gardens, and a large outlet mall. The castle was cool but didn't take too long to look at, and the gardens were a bit smaller than expected. They were, however, very beautiful on account of the sakura (cherry trees) blooming. It was surprisingly busy for a week day, but I suppose other people were on vacation, too.

Okayama Castle

It's also known as the "Crow Castle" because of its black color.

Next I will bombard you with sakura. They are the quintessential spring flower, and since they don't bloom for very long, they're apparently symbolic of the transience of beauty. Or something like that. Anyhow, the news even includes a "sakura forecast" which predicts when the sakura will be in full bloom in different parts of the country, since the climate varies . Kochi has some of the earliest-blooming sakura.

People picnicking under the sakura trees. "Hanami" is the name for these flower-viewing picnics.

Ooo, pretty.

HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH SAKURA YET?!?!

Too bad! More flowers. This time, with pigeons!

View of Okayama Castle with sakura.

The sakura were the main thing blooming when I visited, but there are other plants in different parts of the garden. I think there was an area with irises (not blooming yet) and plum trees (already bloomed). There were also some fancy landscape things, including little tea houses and structures where the lords would rest while wandering about the garden. Next are some views of the garden from the top of a small hill.

What's that? Wait, it looks like...

MORE SAKURA, BWAH HA HA! Seriously, though, I think the trees are most beautiful from a distance because they look like lace.

 Probably my favorite part of the garden was the aviary. They had a few pens off to one side where they kept some cranes. I think in the past there must've been wild cranes that visited the garden, because I saw some painted screens that referenced them. But now it's probably too busy to count on wild ones sticking around, so they have some tame ones on display. I stood around watching them for quite a while; I like the noise they make. I took a short video to try to capture the sound.

After checking out the castle and the gardens, I spent most of the rest of my time shopping. There was a very large outlet mall conveniently located near Kurashiki Station, so I took the train out there and wandered around for quite a while. I also explored the area around Okayama Station. In the end, I didn't buy any clothes, but I did buy a hot pink purse and some jewelry. I think it's fair to say that I will enjoy my purchases.

Aside from my main objectives (castle, garden, shopping) I had some pleasant surprises which made the trip especially fun. The first surprise was the cranes, which I had not known would be at the garden. I also enjoyed some delicious white peach ice cream. 

Side note: Peaches are a big deal in Okayama because it is supposedly the setting for the famous story of Momotaro, known in English as "Peach Boy". He was born from a peach and went on to defeat some ogres with the help of his friends, a dog, a pheasant, and a monkey. Anyhow, the ice cream was great. 

I had even MORE delicious ice cream when I found a Cold Stone Creamery at the outlet mall. And, completing the trifecta of awesome sweets, I had some Krispy Creme Donuts at the station. So much better than Mister Donut! My final treat was the discovery of the Tama tram. Okayama, like Kochi, has a limited network of trams. This one was decorated like Tama, a cat who used to be (?) stationmaster at Kishi Station. (I believe Tama is retired now, but I could be wrong about that.) Anyhow, she even wore a stationmaster's hat, so I don't think anyone could argue with her legitimacy as a railway employee.

Please note that the tram has cat ears.

It's Tama!

Anyhow, two days was a good amount of time for my purposes in Okayama. I actually caught a slightly earlier bus than originally planned because I ran out of stuff to do around the station, but I imagine that a more diligent sightseer could find plenty of other things to do. For example, visit art and history museums. But I was mostly there for flowers and shopping, so this afternoon I concluded my mission and returned to Kochi. So I'll spend tomorrow and Friday in the office, and then the weekend will be devoted to the conclusion of the Genki Musical tour! I'll post about that when I have some more pictures to share.