Okayama Wednesday 21st March 2007

The next day, after Universal Studios was a public holiday so Lauren, Tina, Renee and I decided to go on a day trip to Okayama. It took two hours on the train to get there because we got off the fast train and took the slow train half way. We were starving by the time we got there so we went to this really cheap place for lunch. The food was delicious. I ate potato salad, soup, rice and a pork stir fry and it cost me 600yen which is around six dollars. I don’t know why everyone says Japan is so expensive, because it is the cheapest place to eat out. In just about every restaurant I have gone to, I could get a meal for under ten dollars, and descent meals at that price are very hard to come by in Australia!

After lunch, we walked to the gardens and looked around. It was really pretty, but I think the best season to see the gardens would be Summer because funnily enough, in Summer it rains more and everything is green.

While we were strolling through the gardens, we saw this man and woman taking photos after they had just gotten married. The lady was in a traditional Japanese bridal dress and her hair was all up with beautiful clips in it. Her dress was so colourful and she looked like a little Japanese princess! She was so beautiful, so we took a photo of her.

We made our way to the Okayama Castle which is a black castle. Unfortunately, the castle is not the original as they had to rebuild it after World War Two when it was raided by a bomb. There are only three original ancient castles left in Japan and the Himeji Castle is one of them. It was nice to look at, but it had nothing on the Himeji Castle because the Himeji Castle is ancient and had all the original interior and exterior architectural designs. The Okayama Castle was still cool to look at though. We got to sit in a carriage that is used to carry the princess of the castle around. It looked really cool and it was so comfortable to sit in. I fit in it just perfectly. In fact, I think they made that carriage just for me! I was almost going to pick it up and take it with me!

Okayama was a really cool place to go and visit. We missed out on seeing quite a few things there, so it is another place that I have to put on my “Must Go Back and See” list!

The train ride home was almost as packed as the train ride home from Osaka! It was really funny though because just before the train left, there was still a few gaps on the train that people could stand in. Tina said that the train was packed, and I relied back to her, “no, there is still room for at least another ten people to come in” and sure enough, ten more people, no more, no less, came onto the train! I felt like a psychic. So if anyone wants me to tell their future, you can write to me and I will be able to make my predictions!

The next few diary entries will be dedicated to Tokyo. This is where I will be going next. Should be a blast. I can’t wait to tell you all about my expedition! Wish me luck!