Korakuen Garden & Okayama Castle

Two days off before training starts and reality sets into place. Given there's no time to waste sitting around I headed over to the regional garden and castle here in Okayama. Korakuen Garden is supposed to be one of the nicest gardens in Japan so I was excited. It was about a 20 minute walk from where I'm staying and also pretty much adjacent to Okayama-Jo (Okayama Castle).


Aside from the garden and castle looking spectacular, there were so many cute kids running around with their parents. This made me anxious since I'm going to be working primarily with younger kids when I start teaching. It appears people in general here permanently have smiles on their faces when they're out in public. Everyone embodies a friendly presence and it almost seems too good to be true. Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming. On second thought, don't. Please don't.

The rest of my pictures are posted on facebook (I actually took quite a few today).