It was somewhat out of necessity that we were staying in Okayama for the weekend. We'd looked at various places to stay, and found that almost everywhere was booked up. We learnt this was because the weekend was another Japanese holiday. Okayama did at least have available hotel rooms, though they were expensive. We arrived on the bullet train from Hiroshima, and walked the 400 metres or so to the hotel. The hotel was nice, and it was the first time we'd shared a bed for a couple of weeks. We decided to make the most of the expensive hotel, and had a nice evening in.

We didn't leave the following day either . On Saturday 10th, we hung out in the hotel. The furthest we went was the Lawsons convenience shop on the ground floor for snacks and wine. We had a lovely day in, and because we were in, we managed to catch a surprisingly large number of people on Skype! Starting with the wonderful Mike, Jen, Tom and Wills, we had an hour long catch up. During this call, we were contacted by the fabulous Jack and El, and so called them afterwards. Jack and El were also on a call to the marvelous Jesse. We were able to talk to Jack and El for nearly two hours and had a great catch up. After that, we called Jesse and were able to have a good quality chat with him for approaching an hour. By the end of this time, it was nearly midnight for us, and we'd sunk two and a half bottles of wine. Whoops.

On Sunday 11th, we were hung-oh-ver, but needed to check out and see some of the sights in Okayama. We managed breakfast and packing well, left our bags with the hotel, and headed to Okayama castle and the Korakuen gardens . About a kilometre along the road, we happened upon some kind of food convention, ignored it, and went to the castle grounds where there was another kind of food convention. We kept pressing on until we heard gun fire, and clapping. We realised that there was a demonstration taking place in front of the castle, with several people in costumes, firing various different types of guns. There was quite a crowd gathered, with film cameras and all sorts. We stood around the edge of the crowd for a while, but not being able to see very well, decided to move on and into the castle.

The castle was pretty but expensive. We headed up to the top floor and watch more guns being fired below. Still confused about what was happening, we headed down through the castle to look at the displays. These were mostly outfit or costume related. We figured they weren't real, or we wouldn't be able to take photos of them.

We crossed the river and headed to Korakuen garden; known as one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. It was extremely pretty. With autumnal colours coming out, we walked around some bamboo groves, found tucked away shrines, and so many beautiful and colourful carp in the lake. There were some giant herons in cages at one end, which we couldn't take good pictures of due to the wiring. It was a very peaceful setting.

We walked back towards our hotel and picniced by a water fountain opposite. We collected our bags and made use of our JR passes for the last time, and headed to our next destination - Osaka, again!