Day 9 - Thursday November 2, 2017 - Okayama
Okayama
Posted on Thursday November 2, 2017
Today we’re going to Okayama so down to the station to catch the 8.23 shinkansen (Hikari # 495).
The main attraction in Okayama is the Koraku-en Garden and the adjacent Okayama Castle. As Lonely Planet describes it –
“Kōraku-en draws the crowds with its reputation as one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. It has expansive lawns broken up by ponds, teahouses and other Edo-period buildings, including a nō theatre stage, and even has a small tea plantation and rice field. In spring the groves of plum and cherry blossoms are stunning, white lotuses unfurl in summer, and in autumn the maple trees are a delight for photographers. Built on the orders of daimyō Ikeda Tsunemasa, the garden was completed in 1700 and, despite suffering major damage during floods in the 1930s and air raids in the 1940s, remains much as it was in feudal times.”
“Nicknamed U-jō (烏城; Crow Castle) because of its colour, the striking black Okayama Castle has an imposing exterior with gilded fish-gargoyles flipping their tails in the air. You can appreciate its impressive appearance for free from the grounds or looking from across the river. Inside the donjon (main keep), some modern finishes detract from the 16th-century feel, but there are a few interesting museum displays and views from the top floor. First completed in 1597 under daimyō Ukita Hideie, much of the castle was dismantled after the Meiji Restoration and most of what remained burnt down during WWII air raids. It was rebuilt in 1966.”
There is also the Yumeji Art Museum. “Prominent Taishō-era artist and poet Takehisa Yumeji (1884–1934) is particularly known for his bijin-ga (images of beautiful women), and various wistfully posed ladies feature among the paintings, prints and screens on display at this small museum. It’s just across the river on the northeast side of Kōraku-en.”
Elsewhere we are told, among the attractions of Okayama, only Kōraku-en is widely known. But one key unlocks the city’s unique charm: Momotarō, the Peach Boy.
According to the Japanese fairytale, an old, childless couple found a peach floating down the river, and inside they found a baby boy. They duly adopted him and named him Momotarō (桃太郎), or (quite literally) “Peach Boy”. As he grew, he began to feel greatly indebted to the couple that raised him, and when he was finally grown, he announced that he would be going on a journey to Onigashima (Demon Island) to fight the demons that had been causing trouble in the nearby villages. The old woman prepared kibi-dango (food) for him to take on his journey and bid him farewell. On his way to the island, he befriended a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant by giving them each a piece of the kibi-dango. With their help, he defeated the demons; Momotarō took the demons’ treasures back home and gave them to the old couple to thank them for all the things they’d done for him throughout the years. The couple rejoiced that he was back safely, and they all lived happily ever after.
You now know as much about Okayama as I do and probably far more than you ever wanted to know….
We arrived on time (no surprise there) and headed out. The choices for getting to Kōraku-en seemed to be to (a) a 25-30 minute walk, (b) take a tram part way and walk the rest of the way or (c) take a # 18 bus to the front door. We opted for the bus. First challenge was figuring out which of the dozen or more bus stops fronting the station the # 18 bus departs from. We managed to find a large board displaying all the routes but of course they were all in Japanese. After staring at the board, we realised the bus route names/descriptions included the bus number …. but as the buses were listed by the stop from which they departed, that meant scanning the entire list in the hope of finding # 18. Ah, stop 1! Oh dear …. stop 1 was the only stop that seemed to have people at it and it was a long line. No matter, we walk over …. there’s a bus at the stop that says, amongst all the other indecipherable information, ‘18’. None of the people in line seemed interested in it so we just hopped on, hoping for the best.
It was the correct bus and our timing couldn’t have been better – off we go. Rather than get off at Kōraku-en, we went one stop further, to go to the Yumeji Art Museum first. As the earlier description said, the museum is fairly small. It was certainly of some interest but as everything was in Japanese, with no effort to accommodate the non-Japanese speakng visitor, it was somewhat frustrating. There was a film playing but that was in Japanese, with no suggestion that it might be available in other languages. There was also a large TV screen which appeared to be able to display and search/cycle through the museum collection but after a few minutes of pushing buttons (including one that said ‘Help’), I couldn’t get it to do anything useful so gave up. As we were the only visitors in there, one might think that the young lady on the desk would come to our aid but no such luck this time.
We finished our visit and walked back over to the Kōraku-en Gardens. There were automated ticket machines so we used those though, in my rush to get the tickets, probably didn’t sufficiciently study the choices. We sussed that I could get a cheaper ticket (A-M isn’t quite of an age yet) but, when we later went to Okayama Castle, realised there was (at least at the Castle) a combined Castle/Gardens/Museum ticket.
On the way, we debated the reasonableness of expecting a Japanese museum to have English signage. Would a museum in Australia have Japanese signage? We all know the answer to that one…. However, that said, some places we’ve been to do a good job of accommodating the non-Japanese speaker whereas others just leave the gaijin to flounder about on their own. This is somewhat paradoxical as, as often as not, you only have to stand there for a few seconds looking confused or lost before someone offers to help.
We wandered round the Gardens, stopping at the tea room (we never pass up a tea room) before wandering some more and then stopping by a kiosk for a matcha ice cream. The gardens are certainly pleasant, very spacious, with a lot of open grass areas and some good vistas. However, it wasn’t particularly apparent to us why this would be considered one of the best three gardens in Japan. Spacious, certainly but not ‘exquisite’ or ‘sublime’ which are the thoughts invoked by some other gardens.
After we finished our ice cream, we exited by the south gate on the opposite side of the gardens from where we entered and crossed the pedestrian footbridge over the river to Okayama Castle. The main part of the Castle is certainly imposing and striking but, having been damaged at times, destroyed during the war and then re-built in 1966, as we approached the main entrance from the land side, I couldn’t help thinking ‘hmm, looks like something Disney would build’.
You were supposed to start your tour on the sixth floor so, as instructed, we took the elevator up to the fourth floor (as far as it went) and then walked up. The top floor was fairly small but afforded some good views. We then worked our way back down – various exhibits on the way, though photographs were not permitted of what were probably the more interesting items. Eventually, the exit beckoned but, of course, like all good attractions, that required you to exit via the gift shop.
As we’d taken the bus this morning, we decided we would just walk back, so as to see something of the city, and find somewhere for lunch. The Lonely Planet guide had a few suggestions, including Ajitsukasa Nomura, which was on our way back –
“Step into this quiet bamboo-themed restaurant to try local speciality demi-katsudon – deep-fried pork cutlets with a thick, rich demi-glace sauce, served on rice. Place your order by purchasing a ticket from the machine inside the entrance. The machine doesn’t have English, but the separate menu does and staff can assist.”
We duly found the restaurant, down a side street off the main road. The photos that we had seen of the suggested demi-katsudon – or at least the ‘thick, rich demi-glace sauce’ were, to say the least, ‘interesting’ but we figured we’d give it a go. As it turned out, it wasn’t bad – the pork was good and the sauce tasted rather better than perhaps it looked.
Suitably fortified, we wandered on and back to the station and having gone underground to get across the roadway outside the station, stumbled across a Starbucks, so stopped for coffee before eventually heading up to the platform to catch our train back to Kyoto.
Koraku-en Gardens
Okayama Castle
Back to the Station and Lunch
A Few More of A-M’s Manhole Covers