{"id":29936,"date":"2019-09-23T05:11:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T21:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=29936"},"modified":"2026-03-14T19:42:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:42:24","slug":"11-days-in-chugoku-kyushu-day-07-okayama-korakuen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2019\/09\/23\/11-days-in-chugoku-kyushu-day-07-okayama-korakuen\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Days in Ch\u016bgoku & Kyushu – Day 07 – Okayama – Korakuen"},"content":{"rendered":"

My planned itinerary before actual departure was to spend one day in Okayama, and another in Kurashiki. For the former, the places I’d be checking out would include the Korakuen Garden, Okayama Castle, Yumeji Art Museum, Ishizekicho, and Tenmaya Mall. Most visitors seem to combine both places on a single day, on account that Kurashiki is just an 11-minute train ride away from Okayama. So, I decided to follow suit and keep just the two most important places to visit in Okayama \u2014 Korakuen<\/strong> and the Castle \u2014 and cover both spots in the morning, then spend the rest of the day in Kurashiki.<\/p>\n

Getting to Okayama was fairly easy again: the opening hours of Korakuen were 9AM, so working backwards and taking into account the time it’d take to walk the 1.5km between Okayama Station and the garden, I took the 7:53AM Shinkansen out of Hiroshima \u2014 the ride was covered again by the JR Pass \u2014 and 34 minutes later, I was in the city.<\/p>\n

Korakuen is Okayama’s main attraction and is considered one of Japan’s top three landscape gardens. The other two being Kenrokuen in Kanazawa (which we should be visiting in December), and Kairakuen in Mito. Past admission \u2014 \u00a5560\/SGD7.20 for a combo ticket that includes admission to Okayama Castle just nearby \u2014 you go up a small slope and will be treated immediately to a jaw-dropping sight of how vast the garden is. It was slightly drizzling again during this morning visit, so I had to balance the umbrella with the Sony A73!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sawa-no-ike Pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Enyo-tei House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kayo-no-ike Pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Castle is on a small hill and overlooks the garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sawa-no-ike Pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There must be hundreds of koi in the pond, and they approach humans with the expectation of being fed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Seiden, or rice fields.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Going up to the Ryunten Rest House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Ryunten Rest House sits on Yuishinzan Hill and offers panoramic views of Korakuen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A wide-angle shot of the garden using the Oppo’s camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Yatsuhashi Bridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Walking down toward the Renchi-ken Rest House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Renchi-ken Rest House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong>: Korakuen truly is a must-visit spot, and ranks among the three most impressive gardens and parks I’ve checked out this trip. Allocate between an hour to one and a half hours for it.<\/p>\n

My exploration of Okayama Castle<\/a> continues in the next post!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My planned itinerary before actual departure was to spend one day in Okayama, and another in Kurashiki. For the former, the places I’d be checking out would include the Korakuen Garden, Okayama Castle, Yumeji Art Museum, Ishizekicho, and Tenmaya Mall.<\/p>\n

Read More 11 Days in Ch\u016bgoku & Kyushu – Day 07 – Okayama – Korakuen<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[661,658,608,613],"class_list":["post-29936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-chugoku-kyushu-japan-2019","tag-oppo-reno-10x-zoom","tag-sony-a7-iii","tag-sony-fe-24-105mm-f4-0","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/blog-2019-japan-chugoku-kyushu-day-07-A7_08397-okayama-korakuen.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38491,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29936\/revisions\/38491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}