2008 Japan Three Island Tour: March 30th:

     We all met at the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Faces around the room were lighter and laughter came quicker since we had had some sleep. We enjoyed a buffet of Japanese-style food such as fish, rice, miso soup, half-boiled eggs, pickled radish and cucumbers and a variety of other colorful things of which we were not quite sure of origin.

   After breakfast, the group met in the lobby of the hotel and loaded up in the van to go into the heart of Okayama. Our goal was Okayama's Koryakuen...one of the three most celebrated gardens in Japan. It is located next to "The Black Castle" - a castle used by the local ruling family since the 1600's.

     Rain was the theme for the day, so we all brought umbrellas and strolled around the immaculately manicured garden. All of the trees were perfectly trimmed - the lawns were so smoothly cut that they appeared to be artificial. There were a series of ponds filled with koi and surrounded by little traditional-looking buildings with ceramic shingles that served as gathering places. As you passed them, you could see a row of shoes outside, neatly lined up, and hear laughter from the other side of the paper-and-wood sliding doors. The rain was coming down in soft sheets. Even so, there was a surprising amount of people there, strolling around the garden under their umbrellas.  The trees were showing signs of cherry blossom activity, but we were a few days too early.

     A Cherry Tree blossom peaks for only about 4 days per year.  Each tree varies due to microclimate, rainfall, temperature and altitude. You can see on the news where and when the blossoms are happening, much like a weather forecast. It starts in the south and works its way north throughout the country like a wave.

    During this time, locals gather at parks and other public viewing areas.  Blankets are spread out and covered with coolers full of food. Chicken, beef, vegetables such as onions, mushrooms, and pickled radish, rice balls and marinated strips of lamb sit at the ready.  Beer and mini-barbeques are also close at hand.  Children play and adults laugh and socialize under a pink canopy of blossoms.  This is the ancient Japanese tradition of "Hanami".  "Hana" means flower, and "Mi" means watching. I tried to find the deeper meaning of this activity, since in Japan; everything seems to have a more profound, symbolic layer, so I asked my taxi driver in Tokyo what the real meaning of "Hanami" was. He replied: "It's a time to get together and get drunk."

   We strolled around the garden and up to the Black Castle of Okayama. It had been around for hundreds of years until World War Two, when it was bombed out. They rebuilt it a few years later, and you can still get a sense of original majesty by looking at its rock foundation.  The castle used to have gold decorating its roof. Now, it has an elevator and a museum. It also holds many timeless treasures, and is a good place for visitors to learn about Japan's past.

     It was cold out, and the rain would not let up, so we turned our attention to lunch. At first, we considered a "Kaitenzushi" place. It is a specialized sushi restaurant where a conveyor belt system delivers fresh sushi and other goodies past each table.

You just sit there and select what you want to eat! Prices are determined by the color of the plate the sushi is on. At the end of the meal, they count your plates to calculate your bill.

    However, since it was raining on a Sunday around Hanami time, the place we had in mind was completely full of people.  Waiting an hour for a table did not seem like the thing to do, so we headed for a Yaki Niku restaurant down the street.  

    "Yaki" means fried or cooked, and "Niku" means meat. This type of restaurant comes from Korean origin. You can't go a city block in Japan without seeing one of them. The idea of the this type of  restaurant is that you order raw portions of various meats and vegetables, fire up a grill located at the center of your table, and cook your own! Delicious sauces are provided for dipping, and usually one orders a small bowl of rice to complement the meat.  Here's how it goes: chopstick your meat from the platter to the grill, cook it the way you want it, dab it in sauce, eat. Immediately after that, take the bowl of rice and put it near or next to your mouth, (remember to eat noisily) and throw down a rice chaser. Repeat.

     The meal was terrific, and everyone enjoyed cooking and eating their own. Some of the riders commented that it was refreshing knowing exactly what you were eating!

    After lunch, we headed to a most unique motorcycle shop. Sharing one building, the following makes would not pull it off in the USA: Can you imaging a BMW/Harley-Davidson franchise? Granted, there was a space between the building, and when the BMW guy runs over to the HD showroom to run a credit card...

    The riders cooed and awed over what both show rooms had to offers before we rounded up the wagons and headed for the hotel. On the way, some of the gang asked to be dropped off at a center promenade shopping area for about an hour, while the rest headed straight back to the hotel. The promenade was covered by plastic-roofed arch that extended for 4 or 5 blocks. It was full of little shops and restaurants of all varieties and was a great people watching opportunity.  Okayama is off the beaten track for foreign tourists, so one feels like they are in the real Japan as they walk along with a myriad of Japanese shoppers.

  That night, we all met in one of the private dining rooms at the hotel to enjoy our official welcome dinner. In regular form, the dinner was spectacular with a wide variety of dishes (over 15 in all) ranging from sushi to mochi (rice chewy stuff) to tempura. The main course was a pot of boiling water that you put a mix of chicken and vegetables into. It was a kind of chicken soup, Japan style! All the food was, of course, exceptional!

   After the meal, the hotel staff rolled up three take drums and played a couple of "songs" for us. While this was going on, two hotel staff came into our room wearing a dragon costume. The head of the dragon was made of wood and had moving jaws which clicked loudly every time the mouth was clasped shut. The dragon went from person to person, feigning a bite on each person's head, and then fled the room. What a show for the first night!