The last time we visited Okayama the castle was still under reconstruction, so we toured the gardens. So a highlight for me on this trip is getting to visit the castle.
We decided to walk from Okayama station to the castle rather than taking the tram, since the expected travel time was only a few minutes longer. The walk was pleasant enough but entirely urban.
The castle and garden are separated by a river and serviced by a fancy new footbridge. It is possible to rent canoes or paddleboats along the river, and there was at least one boat tour operating from the city park where we arrived.
The castle is a replica with the usual museum stuff inside. But wow! Since it’s a fairly recent castle the museum inside was incredible. Aside from the second floor, photography was prohibited. But the castle had teamed up with a local historian to create a series of videos with tidbits of history and geography through out the museum. There were three significant historical figures in the history of Okayama castle. They had the usual selection of armour and swords and garments, of course, but the all the walls were essentially color coordinated historical reports for each personage, making it easy to determine in which period the stuff belonged. And more importantly, in addition to the text, every wall was a mural, done in historical style, representing the events being discussed. So even with paltry japanese skills, you could figure out what was happening and when. It was extremely well thought-out.
The second floor was basically a photo op floor. They had a palanquin that you could sit in, model horses, you could try on armour, measure yourself against the shogun, etc. Very fun stuff.
And ice cream!
Following the castle, we visited the garden. Kouraku-en is not nearly as amazing in winter as it is in spring and after Shukkeien garden, it felt somewhat barren. We still spent close to two hours wandering the paths, everyone free to explore at their independent leisure. A new addition is the crane enclosure – and apparently several times a month the cranes are freed to wander the grounds independently.
On the way back we decided to take the tram, and so we took the underpass to the trolley and discovered a cool fountain area and a flea market.