Okayama and Kurashiki

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Today was our one day to spend in Okayama. Unfortunately, we were all a little tired, so we slept in an extra hour and went around by ourselves instead of with the group.

First, we went to the city of Kurashiki to see the Kurashiki City Art Museum by Kenzo Tange. The exterior of the building was not that exciting, aside from the interesting and subtle texture of the concrete, but the interior space was nicely designed. We were all a little disappointed by the quality of the construction. The detailing and craft was not what it should have been, and was really distracting and unfortunate.

After that we wandered around the city for a while. We say the Oyama Memorial Museum, the Ivy Academic Hall, the Japanese Rural Toy Museum, the Ohara Museum of Art, the Ohara House, and the Achi Shrine. Of course, we didn’t go inside any of them because we were in a hurry to get back to Okayama. None of the buildings really stood out as anything amazing but experiencing the town was cool. The weather was all over the place today. It would be raining and cold one minute and the next be hot and sunny. In Kurahiki, we met this Turkish guy who had lived in Chicago for a few years so he spoke English very well. We ended up walking by his Turkish shop and buying some Turkish ice cream from him….it was all very Turkish lol. After that we headed to the Achi Shrine, and then back to the train station.
We got back to Okayama at around 3:30 and headed to the Korakuen Garden. The garden is in the picturesque style, oriented around a central lake. The landscape is a little overly controlled for me, but some of the views were still stunning. There were small buildings and gazebos around to enhance the landscape and provide stopping places along the way.

There were a few bridges along the way that we took advantage of for some more “band photos”. After the garden, we walked across the river to Okayamajo Castle. The castle was closed, but we could still get onto the grounds so we walked around and took some quick pictures.

By that time, we were all pretty tired so we headed back to our hotel, stopping at the train station on the way to try to get bullet train reservations to get to Tokyo and to get some food. We got the reservations and then went to dinner at a ramen place in the station. Of course all the ramen had pork in it, which has a tendency to make me sick, so I got gyoza (Chinese dumplings). Finally, we went home and traded pictures from the day. Our band photo gallery, hopefully, will continue to grow, because those are definitely fun.

Tomorrow we leave Okayama at 9:30 to go to Naoshima to see the Benesse Art Site and the Benesse House, all designed by Tadao Ando. The Art Site is comprised of The Benesse House, the Art House Project and the Chichu Art Museum and is focused on re-evaluating the relationship between man, architecture and nature. The setting seems like it will be very serene and I’m excited to see the architecture. Hopefully pictures will be posted of everything I’ve done pretty soon. Love you all.