Okayama

Okayama is a castle city on the Seto Inland Sea side of western Honshu, a rail crossroads where the shinkansen meets the bridge line to Shikoku. It calls itself the Land of Sunshine for its mild, dry climate, and it claims the folk hero Momotaro as a native son.

Korakuen, one of Japan's three great landscape gardens, spreads lawns and ponds beside the black keep of Crow Castle, with a footbridge crossing between them over the Asahi River. Summer markets fill with white peaches and muscat grapes, the prefecture's celebrated fruit.

The canal town of Kurashiki waits one local stop away, and ferries and trains continue to the art islands and Shikoku. Momotaro's statue greets you outside the station, and kibi dango dumplings are the souvenir to match. Two relaxed half-days cover the garden and the canal quarter next door.