Aside for being the home of Momotaro, Okayama is also the home of Kourakuen, one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, along with Kenrokuen (Kanazawa, Ishikawa) and Kairakuen (Mito, Ibaraki). It is located near Okayama Castle, a 100 yen tram ride from Okayama Station plus around 10 minutes of walking from Shiroshita stop. I bought the combined Okayama Castle and Kourakuen tickets for 560 yen. 

Okayama Castle’s exterior is black, so it gained a unique nickname: Crow Castle. Inside the castle, they sell ice creams and parfaits, and also souvenirs! It is said that an episode of Detective Conan took place inside the castle, where they ate “Oshiro parfait” (castle parfait) which is made of white peach, of course. Since I have already tried the parfait at another place, I decided to go with white peach ice cream this time. Needless to say, it was yummy, especially on a hot summer day.

Go across Tsukimi Bridge, and you will be near the south gate of Kourakuen. You can rent swan boats on Asahi River too (I wanted to try but I traveled alone, so yeah). 

Kourakuen is spacious and features a wide variety of plants and flowers which names I can’t bring to mind. Also you may expect the garden to be colourful, but because it was summer, the majority of the garden was green. Just... green. Maybe I should go again later in spring or autumn lol. Anyway, it has great scenery and was so peaceful despite being just green.

Next is the canal area of Kurashiki, or Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter. Just as its name proposed, it is a place where many historical things are being kept: museums! There are some street vendors along the street as well. Unlike buying from a shop, you can apply your bargaining skills here. Again, it looked just green everywhere, but it offered a scenery just like from the past times.

And today’s local food is demi katsudon with muscat grape drink!