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| Nearby canal - Kooraku Hotel is about 15 metres to the left. |
We were expecting another dreary day, but were pleasantly surprised by the sun making an appearance this morning. After a bit of a lay-in and a buffet breakfast (I managed to take the only pastry with a bean-paste centre) we made our way along Momotaro-Odori to Okayama-jo (known to locals as Crow Castle - due to its colouring).
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| Okayama Castle |
There was an over-sized stick-sculpture in the outer courtyard of the Castle, which the kids made a bee-line for. Some local children took their exploration a few steps further and scaled several metres into the air - their parents either supremely confident in their abilities or over-burdened with progeny.
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| The largely ground-based Martin children. |
While the external view of the Castle is delightful, the place is - frankly - a concrete re-build. It was largely dismantled during the Meiji Restoration with the remnants catching fire during the WWII bombings. Even though he is not so much a purist himself, Joshie fell off his chair (a park bench actually) anyway. Despite landing on his face, a muffled, "I'm alright" alleviated our initial concerns.
Had we not have already known about the non-authentic construction of Okayama Castle, there was one additional give-away. It had a whopping great elevator in it.
The view from the top was amazing, and gave a close up view of the gilt shachi (the tiger-headed fish protecting the structure) as well as the Tsukimi Bridge.
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| Shachi - busy protecting the Castle. |
We were making our way down through the Castle's many levels when the staff convinced Lily to dress up in a Kimono. Josh's bottom lip started to protrude in an ominous fashion before they dressed him up too (Hamish back-pedalled out of there before he could be roped in).
We made our way across the Tsukimi Bridge to Korakuen Garden - another of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan.
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| View from Tsukimi Bridge |
Korakuen again features some mossy areas, but also some fairly expansive lawns (largely unheard of in Japan from what I've seen). There were stepping stones across winding waterways everywhere - making for some very pretty vistas, but nightmarish for toddler-control. We all remained dry - although were once again swarmed by misty-eyed old folk attempting to convince us that our kids were Kawai (methinks it was the glaucoma talking). Jen and I sampled some peach soft-serve ice-cream (flavoured in honour of Momotaro no doubt).
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| The local tourists love this purple-berried shrub for reasons unknown. |
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| Josh: 'The precarious creek-crossing is this way!' |
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| Railings? Pffft. |
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| Just when you thought water-crossings couldn't get any less child-friendly. |
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| There were these teeny timber paddle-boats, anchored by rocks in streams all over the garden. The paddle-wheels would drive tiny chimes in a plink-plonking fashion. |
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| Koi-fish - boy are their faces red... |
The Peach Boy is almost worshipped about town, with sculptures and branding frequently featuring either him or his chatty animal friends. As is the Japanese tendency, this trend continued with more manhole cover art.
While wandering through a stylish under-cover mall in search of lunch, we came across a major police bust taking place. A solemn looking young man on a bike was being written a ticket by a pair of heavily-uniformed police (or parking attendants, I'm still at a loss).
Thoroughly embarrassing myself in front of the locals, I managed to take a few snaps of Tomato Bank, which is not some seed-saving laboratory, but a financial institution. To add a further twist to this kooky company - the spokeswoman appears to wear a gherkin on her head.
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| I've got to be missing something here... |
We are off to Hiroshima tomorrow morning, before ending up on Miyajima Island for the evening. Okayama has a great feel to it, and we will be sorry to leave it behind.
