Okayama and Takebe

This weekend Heather, Suvanya (Sue) and I went to Okayama. We weren't really planning to go by Shinkansen (bullet train), but somehow those were the tickets we ended up with. Heather and Sue had already been on the Shinkansen, but they were very patient with my child-like excitement! It was very cool - the trains go flying through the station! Inside was like being on airplane, complete with seat trays and a stewardess going down the aisle. We arrived in Okayama, 90 km away in just 30 minutes (I guess that would be 112 miles an hour).

In Okayama, we visited the Koraku-en garden, the third most beautiful garden in Japan (Sue asked the obvious question - what are the first two... but Lonely Planet didn't say. Guess we'll never know, unless we stumble upon them by accident). The garden was quite nice, with great views of the castle. As usual, I went a little crazy with the camera. Here are some of my favorite shots.

After lunch, we visited Okayama Castle, also called the Crow Castle because it’s black. The shachi (the fish with tigers heads (aka dolphins by some confused Japanese people)) on this castle are gold, which contrasts beautifully with the black of the castle.

Okayama was filled with statues, trinkets and manhole covers of the local hero - Momotaro. It's not a very compelling story, so I'll let those of you interested check out that link to wikipedia. No matter how uncompelling the story, the figures are cute! (that's a dog, pheasant and monkey with Momotaro)

On Saturday night, we stayed at an International Villa (kind of like a hostel). It was about an hour train ride north of Okayama, and it was in the country. Definitely rural – at least as rural as Japan gets! The villa was attached to an onsen – hot springs for bathing in. After dinner, Heather and I checked it out. A very helpful sign explained the rules to us in Engrish.
The manners when bathed to the spa:
1. Let’s wash a body in the wash place.
2. After scouring off the bubble of the soap fully, let’s enter a bathtub.
3. So as not to generate spray, let’s enter a bathtub quietly.
4. To drink at the bathroom and to eat are a ban.

Another interesting sign at the onsen –
“Make not do a lost article. The lost article disposes of it.”
(makes me wonder if they’ve got some magical lost-and-found system here in Japan! Or maybe they’ve been reading too much Harry Potter!)

In the morning, Heather and I were the only ones at the onsen, so we were able to sneak a camera in and take this photo!