Okayama, one of Japan's sunniest prefectures, is home to Korakuen, one of the country's three great landscape gardens, sitting beside the black-walled Okayama Castle. It is also famed for the thousand-year-old unglazed Bizen pottery tradition.
Okayama (岡山) tied its identity to the Momotarō (桃太郎) peach-boy legend. Kōraku-en (後楽園), laid out in 1700, ranks among Japan's three great gardens, beside the black-walled 'Crow Castle'.
Photos: Korakuen Garden — RG in TLV via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 · Okayama Castle — TAKAYOSHI_ENDOU via FIND/47, CC BY 4.0 · Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter — Yudai_photography via FIND/47, CC BY 4.0
Okayama is ~3h15m from Tokyo and ~45 min from Osaka by shinkansen.
Top pick
Top pickMomotaro peaches & Muscat grapes (Fruit Kingdom)
Okayama is known as Japan's 'Fruit Kingdom,' prized for white Momotaro peaches and seedless Muscat of Alexandria grapes; eaten fresh or in cafe parfaits.
Must-eatDemi-katsudon (demi-glace pork cutlet bowl)
An Okayama City B-class specialty: breaded pork cutlet over rice topped with rich demi-glace sauce instead of the usual egg.
Hinase kakioko (oyster okonomiyaki)
Savory okonomiyaki packed with freshly harvested oysters from the Hinase fishing town in Bizen City; originated in the 1960s using surplus oysters.
Okayama at a glance
Next door
Links marked PR are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Photos: Kōraku-en garden — Rob Oo via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 · Korakuen Garden — RG in TLV via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 · Okayama Castle — TAKAYOSHI_ENDOU via FIND/47, CC BY 4.0 · Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter — Yudai_photography via FIND/47, CC BY 4.0 · Korakuen Garden — RG in TLV via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 · Okayama Castle — vitroid via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 · Demi-katsudon — Ari Helminen via Flickr, CC BY 2.0. Map: Geolonia (MIT).