lost or what?

Obviously I walked from my hotel at the station to the garden and castle area (and back again). There is also a tram for those with money to burn. Approaching the area was nice, but the sun is so very very bright today. It gets brighter from here on in too.

I was here right at opening time of course, after pacing around waiting for opening time.

The garden is right across from the castle, there is the castle.

As I mentioned, I was about 10 minutes early, so I wandered down to steal a swan boat. Locks were impenetrable. So instead, here is another castle photo. More of those to come.

Entering the garden and it is a lot of grass, covered in umbrellas. People just left them here?

I think this garden suffers from being too, 'open', it is too much grass in every shot.

Also, they seem to have a farm on the go.

Not a lot of people around yet.

Here is the plum grove, no garden is complete without one.

This is another source of frustration. There is a tea plantation, which looks nice, but all the spots where you might be able to get a decent shot of it from are roped off. There is a path up the middle of it that would be perfect, but it is off limits.

Too far away from the action for a great photo.

A lot of sun, brown water and grass.

I really do think they have tried to make it a bit less grassy by adding the umbrellas.

All of that area, off limits.

A bit of colour with dirty water.

Cool bridge, lets hope it is not off limits.

This is probably the best shot I got of the garden. The bridge was not off limits.

Perhaps this is a septic tank? It was sort of fenced off from the other areas.

I now did another lap in the reverse direction. This little hut with the creek running through it had confusing signs, one advised you how to put your feet in the water, the other told you not to put your feet in the water. There actually was no water in the bit running through the hut so it was a moot point.

You can walk on this bridge, it requires a lot of concentration.

The best I can do for a photo of that little bridge.

Now it is time to go to the castle, I will enter from the garden entrance.

Possibly this is where the original castle was located.

There it is, a black castle. It looks brand spanking new. This side is a bit flat and boring compared to the back side.

Inside is a museum, cafe, gift shops etc.

This is actually a game where you shoot birds. Unexpected.

There are 5 levels, they have no photo signs on the swords. Photos of Samurai suit were ok though. I would get a sore neck wearing that.

Rather predictably, you cannot get outside at the top level, so this and the next photo are shot through dirty glass.

Groups of school kids were arriving. The glass was really dirty here, like someone spilled coffee on it and tried to wipe it off with a snotty tissue.

After walking back to the station and taking a 30 minute train, I arrived at Kurashiki. Here is the view in the direction away from the tourist zone.

I will go this way, but I will not go outside.

There is a Shotengai that takes you all the way there, it starts off looking very abandoned.

It gets a bit better as you go on, but still 50% vacant stores.

Before doing canal appreciation, I discovered that there is a hill to climb, with a shrine of course. So climb I did.

The shrine is famous for its rope.

Down there is the historic quarter. Which means 3/4 of Kurashiki is not historic. They need to cut a tree down.

This is the best I could find for a view of the historic quarter roof tops.

Before hitting the canals, it was time to explore the ice cream shops. There are a lot.

There were less tourists than I was expecting.

And now for the canal, the boat tours were sold out, so I missed out.

I think I saved shot of the day for last. The sun today was out of control!