Roving Japan

Day 38 Photoset

This morning we said goodbye to our favorite family in Japan (And Kobayashi who came over before we left!) We can’t thank the Kanou family for their hospitality enough! They were above and beyond what we could have hoped for. Thank you!

We also have to thank Risa’s uncle Yosuke who put us in touch with the Kanou’s. If it wasn’t for his connection, I’m not sure what we would have done. Thank you Masamura Yosuke!

Now we are finally back on the road to Tokyo, but I’m still not quite 100% so we are unfortunately going to have to forget about walking the rest of Shikoku. Instead, we skipped ahead to Takamatsu via Okayama. We figure that if I can’t walk, we should still try to see as much of Shikoku as possible before moving on, so tomorrow we are renting a car for 3 days.

Today we spent our afternoon in Okayama, home to ‘Crow’ castle and Kourakuen, one of the top 3 gardens in Japan.

Okayama’s castle is nicknamed ‘Crow’ castle because it is one of the few castles that is not white. It is covered in black storm shutters. It’s a pretty cool castle to look at from the outside, but it was totally destroyed in WW2, so today’s castle is a replica.

Inside is a modern building with an elevator, and a small history museum. Almost everything was the standard castle museum faire, but the highlights had to be the awesome replica kimono’s that Risa and I tried on, and the palanquin (kago) that we were allowed to sit in. The kimono’s were especially cool because there was an attendant who actually put the kimono on you. All we had to do was stand there and not move.

Across the river from the castle is Kourakuen garden. The garden was very pretty, and home to several resident cranes. One of the defining features of the garden is the open grassy area. Back in the Edo period, this kind of grassy field was very rare, so it was quite a symbol of opulence.

We had fun walking around and taking pictures, all the while reminding ourselves that this is ONE OF THE TOP 3 PARKS IN JAPAN!!!

It’s kind of funny, because EVERYTHING is one of the top of in Japan. Japan has tons of cultural heritage sites of varying degrees of importance, but all of the sites latch on to the label and use it to sell more tickets. The garden in Takamatsu is supposed to be one of the top 6 gardens in Japan! Not top 3, but hey, its top 6!

Tonight we are in Takamatsu. We can’t wait to see more of Shikoku during the next few days!