Today, I want to talk about my visit to Okayama City in January 2026. My husband and I stopped there for a few hours on our train trip from Osaka to Hiroshima, which was my last trip in Japan before returning to Brazil.
It was a beautiful sunny day. It was still cold because we were in the middle of the winter season, but the sun was shining and kept us warm.
We got off the train at Okayama station and headed straight to a restaurant to have lunch. After lunch, we walked along spacious avenues towards Okayama Castle, a small but charming castle.
The castle is known as The Crow Castle 🐦⬛ because it’s black, which is quite unusual for Japanese castles. It was first built in 1597 and destroyed by bombs during World War II. Then, in 1966, it was faithfully rebuilt and looks exactly like it did in the past. You can still see the original stones in the castle’s base, the only part that remained intact. They are darker.
The weather was so good! I was so grateful for it! I couldn’t stop commenting on it. 😆 We leisurely strolled along the river near the castle and then through the castle grounds until we reached the castle at the top of the hill. We took a few pictures around the castle, as you can see, but we didn’t go inside.
Across from the castle, there was a Japanese-style garden that used to be a private garden for the Okayama Castle lord in the feudal era. As we were short on time and could only visit one of those two attractions, we decided to visit the park instead of entering the castle because I was curious to see the park, and also because we knew that the inside of the castle doesn’t preserve its original looks (it looks more like a modern museum, which doesn’t attract us as much).
To get to the garden, we crossed a bridge that stretched over the river connecting the castle grounds to it. We spent around 1 hours exploring every corner of the park and then headed to a streetcar stop to go to our next destination.
Our stay in Okayama was short. It lasted around 3 or 4 hours, I think. But it was a very enjoyable visit. 😊
It’s been more than 2 months since I took this trip but only now am I writing about it. And you know what? I’m happy that I decided to do it only now. That’s because it’s a way of revisiting everything I saw and felt during that trip. It helps my memory to keep everything I loved about that trip stored.
I remember the warmth of the sun and the cold breeze, the beautiful patterns that the sun made on the mossy rocks in a stream and the sound of the water flowing (which I tried to record), the conversations I had with my husband while we strolled around Okayama, what I felt when I first saw the castle, the friendliness of the restaurant, castle and garden staff welcoming us, the delicious taste of our lunch…and so much more! It’s like I’m reliving in my mind’s eye everything I experienced that day. And to my surprise, I remember so many details! 😍
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