Hey Hive!
If you missed the last couple of posts, we just started recounting our trip to Hiroshima back in April 2019! Sean had won some free air tickets to Hiroshima from a lucky draw sponsored by one of the local banks in Singapore, DBS! Since we've never been, we decided that was a good chance to explore the Chūgoku region!
So last week, after settling into our hotel we took a walk around the neighbourhood and ended up in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park! And the cherry blossoms blooming overhead made it look soo lovely!
It was so surreal to be at the epicenter of the bomb blast from so many years ago but I'm glad Hiroshima has found peace since then, in the form of many memorials and tributes to those who passed. Just the sight of all those lovely cherry blossoms blooming just shows there's so much new life since then.
Anyway, it was a pretty fulfilling day and since we had the JR pass we thought of venturing out of Hiroshima to neighbouring cities to see even more cherry blossoms and we decided to go explore Okayama!
8 April 2019. Monday.
We set off earlier than usual, and got to enjoy a nice mid-morning stroll to the train station!
We were nice and settled in on the train by 11:30am and ate some onigiri we bought for breakfast from the konbini on the way there.
Thanks to the bullet train we arrived shortly past noon at Okayama station!
The station itself seemed pretty normal, and there were a couple of shops and small department stores nearby, but nothing much else.
Sorry for the poor angle but it was really warm and bright so I could barely see what I was photographing.
The place we were heading to was called Kōraku-en! It is a Japanese garden in Okayama, and one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, along with Kenroku-en in Kanazawa and Kairaku-en in Mito. Since we wanted to see more flowers and sakura, this seemed like a promising place to visit!
Koraku-en means "Garden of pleasure after", which is a reference to a saying attributed to Confucius—explaining that a wise ruler must attend to his subjects' needs first, and only then should he consider his own interests. (Source: Wikipedia)
They even had a special Okayama Korukuen Bus that goes there from the station so we boarded it.
It was fairy empty, so we thought there wouldn't be that many people heading to the garden that day. Or I guess less people than expected.
And the garden definitely lived up to its description! Just alighting from the bus we saw soo much sakura!
It looked absolutely beautiful!
Just look at this pathway nicely covered with the reaching branches of this sakura tree!
I'm not a fan of flowers as gifts, but I love seeing flowers naturally like this.
There was even an adorable doggo who came to see the pretty flowers!
The ground was also littered with cherry blossom petals that looked like they were sprinkled on.
We weren't even at the entrance yet and I was already so enthralled with the sakura spectacle. So after taking a bunch of photos, we decided to head on into the actual garden!
This was the general information for the garden, and the tickets are actually pretty affordable!
There was a shrine there too and I think there was a company event being held there or something? I imagine a lot of people would come here on New Years' to get blessings.
And here's the map of the whole garden! It was actually pretty huge just like Shinjuku gyoen, which we visited with my relatives some time back.
I think the chart on the left says what type of flowers are in season each month, but my Katakana is not to good so I'm not familiar with the types of flowers they listed. Either way, there's always something to see any month you visit so not to worry!
Our first stop was the Crane Aviary!
They were all pretty far away from the viewing point but they did look pretty big. I think their names are listed on the plaque and there was even a banner with some information about these majestic birds. It was all in Japanese though, sadly.
I think they sometimes have special events where they let the cranes out of their cages so they can spread their wings but there wasn't one that day unfortunately.
Walking along, we came across this pathway with a mix of bamboo and cherry blossoms that looked so pretty!
Then we came to a lake which I believe is called Sawa-no-ike. There were little islands and bridges in the middle of the lake and so many ducks and fish!
There was a huge school of koi crowding around this lady near the shore who was feeding them. Some ducks and pigeons even came by hoping to grab a bite.
It was pretty warm outside of the shade of the trees so many people were trying to cool down at this little shop with tea, snacks and ice cream! I was tempted to buy it until I saw the prices. As expected, everything was really overpriced.
They even had a tea plantation right beside this tea shop so you know its locally grown and completely natural!
We walked on towards the cherry tree grove but surprisingly came across a maple tree? I'm not too sure if it's actually maple but it had shockingly red leaves that really stood out.
But we finally arrived in the cherry tree grove and it was amazing!! There were quite a lot of people sitting on blankets on the ground having picnics and just enjoying the view.
There was a strong gust of wind that made it all the more beautiful blowing all the cherry blossom petals around. It legit looked like a scene out of romantic movie or something.
And you know what that means - another photo dump!
We would've stayed there longer if it wasn't so warm and crowded. I wanted to sit and have a picnic too but we didn't have a blanket or mat sadly.
Just look at how beautiful it is!
We did buy snacks from a bakery at the station though so we monched on some pastries while enjoying the scenery.
After taking a bunch more photos, we headed off in a loop around to the other side of the garden since we were at the top of the map now. It felt like we were on a beaten path though.
There was a nice little pond of koi here with the sound of a babbling brook. It felt like a fairy tale.
And this was the other side of the cherry blossom grove!
There were some very nice benches here with overhanging sakura that looked like something out of a painting.
And what a wide variety of flora they had here in the garden! I'm no botanist but it did look really nicely arranged.
I feel like so many street artists would come here to paint the scenery.
From afar the grove did look a little overcrowded though, but it gives that magical feeling of being within it I suppose.
Since we had quite an open area out here I asked Sean if he wanted to do some handstands like what we did in Shinjuku Gyoen too! This was back in December 2017:
And now in Spring 2019:
A pretty close likeness I'd say.
We soon headed off from the grove since it was getting pretty warm and we needed to cool off in the shade.
So under the shade of the overhanging sakura we go!
We came across another very tempting dessert shop but walked passed it without buying anything again since it was mostly pricey souvenirs we had no use for.
And with another lovely photo of floating sakura on a koi pond I think I'll end it here!
Sorry for the abrupt ending but I still have a lot more photos to share from our day in this very beautiful Koraku-en so tune in next week for more!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #147 (Hiroshima): Sakura Sighting in Peace Memorial Park! 🌸
