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Blogs from Okayama, Okayama, Japan, Asia
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October 14th 2012
Back on the train gang... Three trains with a three minute changeover at Osaka, saw us travelling to the lovely city of Okayama for two nights. Once again, Japanese efficiency saw us arrive at our destination with lots of time to spend in the afternoon sightseeing. Had a look at Korakuen Garden; one of the 'top three landscape gardens in Japan' (Lonely Planet and Japanese tourist info loves to rank things), which were indeed nice. Dean and Eleanor found an iphone and tried to hand it in at the entrance. I think they thought we were giving them one. It was a very confusing exchange. Later, Dean earned his spot on our tour de South East Asia by finding a bookshop across the road from the hotel. Despite my dislike of the Kindle, I had finished ... read more
July 16th 2012
Well after catching a train from Kagoshima to Okayama we are now in our hotel room just unloading the rucksacks off our backs. It was funny but at Hiroshima station four westerners joined our train and too be honest I thought "we're the only westerners on this train" - sounds like "I'm the only gay in the village", ha ha. Cannot add any photos as the wifi in our hotel in Okayama is really bad - sorry. When arranging our trains for Takayama and then onto Tokyo the queue ended up being out of the building as the poor man behind the counter was getting flustered with our request. I did say to him once he had completed the bookings "you speak very good English - to which he beamed and said do I" ah bless. ... read more
March 12th 2009
Mum and Dad have been friends with Paolo and Mariko since before I was born, from when they lived in Montreal. Mariko is Japanese so they spend some of the year in Japan. I can't remember the last time I've seen them, probably at least 15 years ago or so, but dad emailed them to see if they would be in Japan at the same time as I was, and it turned out that they would be and were kind enough to let me stay with them for 2 nights at their home in Okayama. It wasn't far from Hiroshima to Okayama - about 2 and a half hours. Mariko met me at the bus station but we nearly missed each other because I didn't recognize her and she wasn't sure if she recognized me (but ... read more
February 21st 2009
Every year on the 3rd Saturday in February, one of the coldest night of the year, a crowd of 100s gathers around Saidaiji Temple in Okayama city at midnight. Pushing, crushing each other they vie for space and wait for the chance to receive a blessing, good luck for a year. When the stroke of midnight finally occurs the lights are shut off and the head priest throws three shingi (sacred sticks) into the masses for the participants to grapple for. Of course what I’m leaving out here is that the crowd is entirely composed of nearly naked men clad only in fundoshi (a Japanese style loincloth) and who are completely juiced on sake. Hadaka Matsuri literally means naked festival. There are several in Japan every winter, but the largest and most notorious is held in ... read more
August 4th 2008
I will always look back at this day and think swelteringly hot. August in Japan is not a good time to do site seeing. The best thing to do during the hot muggy days of summer is to stay inside and worship the air conditioning. Despite the heat I wanted to go across the Inland Sea to Honshu and explore. Okayama is the first major city across the Seto Ohashi Bridge on Honshu. Every time I’ve gone to the main island I switched trains at Okayama Station, but I never went into the city before today. Okayama is home to Korakuen one of the three most scenic gardens in Japan. Even though it was really nice, I feel like it paled in both size and grandeur to Ritsurin. (I may be biased since I am a ... read more
