Okayama Castle, Koraku-en Garden and Kurashiki

Yes, today we visited another castle. Remembering that there are only 12 original castles remaining in Japan, and we’re only visiting southern Honshu, it’s a bit surprising that we haven’t already run out of castles on our route! 

However, we didn’t go into the castle. It dominates the garden as “borrowed scenery”. 

The garden itself is considered one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan.

Afterwards, we visited Kurashiki, 

the old warehouse district, where many of the houses are quite old, 

and the warehouses have been converted into shops and other modern uses. 

There’s a canal, and we watched people being dressed up and rowed down the canal.