Okayama & Kurashika

I haven't been as active in the posting here as I've planned to be.. (you may have noticed). As it's been plus one week since the last one, I will probably do a single back post of all the places I've been and the things I've noticed that day etc. This may happen tommorow (cos of events that will be described) or at some later date..

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We started off today in Okayama, in a very nice business hotel, Saiwai-so, that we reached the other night. Our plans were to visit U-jo (Okayama-jo or castle), Koraku-en (scenic park) and Kurashiki. We actually completed our plans for once (though sorta)!
Got up late (even for us) and left around 1030ish, with Liz not feeling so good. Went to a pharmacy and got cough meds. Breakfast was donuts and iced coffee. I'm not sure I've ranted about coffee in Japan yet but I will here. I have not yet found a good coffee in Japan. Granted, we haven't been in many cafe's or Starbucks (avoiding it), but the stuff that we've been served has been pretty awful.. I haven't yet given up hope for finding one but.. I suppose every country has to have it's drawbacks.. >_>" Anyway, condensed milk + BLACK iced coffee = terrible. We kept down the main street from the station after this, walking till we reached the river, which conveniently coincided with the start of the castle grounds.
U-jo, which means Crow Castle, is actually properly named Okayama-jo. It's a concrete reconstruction of the original that was destroyed in air-raids in WW2. That would sound very unappealing to many people (myself included) but I do like how they've managed it. Reconstruction didn't take place for all the buildings in the grounds, but for the main walls and gates, a watchtower and the castle itself. The entrance was very leafy and beautiful (photo's will be on fb!). Entering the grounds, there is a large flat open area upon which there is a stone floor plan of the original building. I loved this. Each room had a label for it's use, and the rooms had different coloured stone borders to show whether it was a solid wall or paper wall. As an archaeologist I was impressed that they had had the foresight to do this (reconstructed in the 60's) though in hindsight I guess they could have added this later >_>". Wandering around the walls gave a great view of the city (and of a nearby archaeological site! Business trip, tax deductible!).
The castle itself was also enjoyable. It's nicknamed Crow Castle because of its dark walls and roof tiles (some of you may get a postcard with it on it). They didn't display any photos of the original that I can recall, but it looked fairly true to the original, and you couldn't tell that it was reinforced concrete. I liked that they hadn't reconstructed the room structure of the inside, but had turned it into a museum of the area's history. The top floor gave great views of Okayama too.

Koraku-en was across the river from U-jo. We entered in the South gate, so we kinda did the path backwards and ended up missing things (we were hungry, liz was feeling sicker). It was a nice change from the parks and gardens that we had seen previously. These were mostly associated with a temple or shrine and were condensed types of gardens. Koraku-en was wide open spaces - macro rather than micro. Even though we were out of season for everything, it was still amazing. It was a clear blue sky day, and the large ponds reflected like mirrors. There were some cool bridges (notably, a 8 'bridge' zig-zag bridge), and a nice jap open building surrounded by ponds, all in the shade. Further along we stopped and had mandarins by a waterwheel. A group with a volunteer tour guide stopped there as well - the guy was so enthusiastic, and his fluro green guide vest kinda hyped it :D.

From there, we caught a tram back to Okayama station, and then a train to Kurashiki. This was a much smaller city, and all the sights sort of condensed on a Historical Quarter. We visited the Japanese Rural Toy Museum; I can't remember most of the names, but there were boats, horses, zodiac animals, paper dolls, Emperor+Empress? dolls, kites, masks... some of them were incredibly detailed and others that were really old were interesting. It was getting to 4-430ish by this stage and the museums were shutting, so we wandered around the shops and arcades for a while. There was a beautiful canal through the middle (MASSIVE koi, and swans) and people selling handmade jewellery alongside it. I bought a ring from one guy who specialised in taking analog watches apart and making broaches and rings out of them. Very steampunk. Awesome.


Ended up missing the Archaeological Museum and the Piggybank Museum :( Wandered up the hill to what was meant to be a park area, though it seemed to be mostly grave markers, a bamboo forest and a shrine (Achi-jinja). There was a great sight from just outside the shrine, a red sunset! Shrine was pretty pretty, but nothing spectacular. Ended up going back through all the shopping arcades and got a few souvenirs. There were some really odd shops around: one dedicated entirely to Totoro (the ghibli film; haven't seen), and one that was all cat and dog merchandise: statues, fabric, jewelery, paraphenalia.. I felt sorry for the girl at the register, the music was christmas carols adapted to have cats and dogs singing the notes..

Ended the day with Liz getting sicker (she actually bought a facemask to wear!..) and soba noodles (dodgy but cheap). We asked for Coke at the soba place but they didn't have any. However, just as we get our food the lady owner comes back with two cans from the vending machine down the street!.. Japanese people are too nice >_<"

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Atm Liz seems to be not well at all, so tomorrow will probably be a write-off once we get back to Kyoto. That may or may not mean I catch up on blogging.
Peace out.