Okayama City

My first time in Okayama was by chance. I was riding the shinkansen and needed to get off at Okayama station in order to board yet another shinkansen. Since I had thought about visiting Okayama before, I pondered the idea of exiting the station, staying overnight in Okayama and doing a lot of sightseeing the following day.

As it was already evening, extra cold and raining even, I decided against it. Besides, I wasn’t sure I’d find a place to stay at. Since it also happened to be national holiday time, practically everyone in Japan was traveling. With so many travelers going who knows where, I figured I was better off sticking to my original plan than missing the last train out should things not work out for me.

Although it may sound like a slight bummer, it actually wasn’t since I got treated to eye candy in Okayama station. It happened when I first arrived to the station. An attractive man was waiting to board my car and I of course was waiting to exit the car. He saw me, just like how I saw him and his eyes got BIG. I doubt his eyes getting big upon seeing me meant that I was his type but I suppose it doesn’t hurt my self esteem to entertain the possibility either.

If it wasn’t because I was his type (lol), it was most likely because he was surprised to encounter a bare faced girl. (You’d probably win the lotto before running into a bare faced Japanese girl in public.) If not this, then I might resemble someone he knows which I find to be a tad bit disturbing. (Who is the doppelganger?) The other very real reason is that he knew I was a foreigner and had some strange reason to be surprised that a foreigner was on the shinkansen. Weird if this was the case, but it doesn’t change the fact that he was attractive…

Anyway, fast forward to some time later and I decide to purposely visit Okayama. Since I started my day late, I arrived to Okayama station late which left me with little time to sightsee. I told myself I could just stay the night and do additional sightseeing the following day. Well, just like how I ended up not staying the night in Kagoshima, I ended up not staying the night in Okayama either. Why? Because I wasn’t feeling Okayama.

Now, don’t be quick to misunderstand me. The city of Okayama was beautiful. The weather that day in Okayama was also beautiful. (A little gloomy, but beautiful nonetheless.) But what wasn’t so beautiful were the people of Okayama. I don’t know what it was about Okayama but way too many people seemed cold and unfriendly. Sure, I wasn’t there to make friends but I certainly didn’t deserve the cold/judgmental looks from locals either. To be fair, the rest of Japan seemed to also have a pretty bad tendency to give cold/judgmental looks but I happened to see it way too many times in Okayama despite the fact that I was minding my own business.

There’s a saying that Kansai people have a thing against Tokyo people and vice versa. With this saying, I can’t help but to wonder if Okayama people kind of have an issue with non locals, too? If they do, I was not only not a local but a not so obvious foreigner that reeked of independence. And in Japan, I’m not too sure how they take independent women. But whatever because I do me and they need to just stick to doing them…

On top of that, I couldn’t find the place I was going to stay at. I thus decided to make my Okayama visit a quick one as I desperately needed to catch the last train out. So, what did I do in Okayama? I walked to Okayama Castle. The walk to the castle from Okayama station isn’t a short one, but an easy one.

If time was on my side, I would have loved to cross the bridge near Okayama Castle and just take a super long stroll. But time wasn’t on my side and I could only handle a visit to Okayama Castle, which of course was better than nothing.

For those of you that have been to Okayama, what was your experience like?