Hotel Kooraku, Okayama 7pm, Monday 11th Jan 2016

Sitting here very excited because I’m wearing my new noise reduction headphones I just bought myself as a belated Xmas present tax-free. One of my better investments that’s for sure. Blasting Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Ragged Glory to break them in. Lynda’s utterly rapt that I now have a legitimate reason not to listen to her and I can sing as loud as I want to and not hear myself! Fantastic! Such a lucky woman.

Wanted to just say a quick goodbye to the majestic Miyajima. What an amazing place to visit and if you worked in Hiroshima some 45 mins away, you could do a lot worse than live in Miyajima and commute each day. A great experience that we will never forget.

We arrived in Okayama to the second of course on the bullet train. The hotel is really nice for $100 a night and thankfully we have a bed that is a bit softer than the past 3 nights. In Kumamoto we had a great hotel but the bed was like putting a sheet over a pallet of bricks that you would see on a new housing site. The past 2 nights in Miyajima have been an inch thin futon on tatami mats. These were never going to cope with a giant slug like me. Having said that, we were pretty dead to the world after the hiking so that was a blessing. The biggest problem for me in my middle age is going to the toilet 2 or 3 times a night so on a futon that thin meant a commando roll, push up/burpee and a lunge just to get up!

Anyway, as we always do we left the bags at the hotel and headed to the 2 big attractions in Okayama, the Korakuan Garden and the Okayama Castle. Okayama is another typical satellite city with a nice blend of old and new. The streets are wide and there is a big commercial hub like the others. Spotless and very relaxed were our first impressions.

Can’t believe I’ve been getting so excited about gardens. All my brothers and sisters are capable and comfortable in a garden but I’m seriously not interested in doing my own. I did landscape a couple of houses when I was married and nothing ethereal came out of that other than a crap bank balance and a sore back!

These gardens are rated as one the 3 best gardens in Japan and they are definitely amazing. The joint looked like it had been vacuumed but the only shame was that the grass, which normally looks like Augusta National was brown because of the season. The other bonus had we been there in spring, would have been to see the flowering of the blossoms which are in abundance. A typically flawless piece of work even though I had no idea.

So then we spotted about 40 Giant Koi swimming near the edge. They are so beautiful and cool. They appear docile but they can see you and will come right out of the water if you have some bread, and as Lynda found out, the lemon-coloured ones will just pop out for a pat!

Over the river is Okayama Castle circa 1600, also known as the Ravens Castle for obvious reasons. We didn’t go in and decided to get something to eat as we were fading.

Had a good feed and being aware that there was a sumo tournament in town that was being televised I left Lynda in the room and went down to see if they would take a rookie westerner. To my surprise, they said yes, and set about adorning me in the traditional ceremonial dress including a fake headdress. A few tips and a quick rundown of the rules and I was ready. I rang Lynda to turn on the TV in an hour or so and witness a real first in international sport, a pasty fat boy from Australia up against a Japanese man who looked like he had eaten a tractor.

So Lynda took a couple of shots of the bout (that’s me on the right). They’re a bit hazy but we were rapt with how it captured such a historic moment. In this first shot you can see me sizing up my opponent Youitchi Clacker.

I wasn’t sure of a strategy so just decided to charge him as hard as I could, try and get a hold of his neck like I used to in punch-ups in the VFA and if I was lucky dig my shoulder in and cut him in half, driving him out of the ring.

Easier said than done as Youitchi took advantage of my inexperience and in a split second, flipped me on my f….g head and sent me careering into an unsuspecting crowd.

Sumo experiment out of the way I headed back to the hotel and did some washing. Can we just say that we did, in fact, find some live sumo on TV and it may well be the most bizarre sport we have ever seen, but geez its riveting. Steeped in centuries-old traditions, it’s slow but you can’t stop watching it! It’s classic high drama with bursts of power packed adrenaline. Nothing like it.

Tomorrow is the main reason we came here and that’s Naoshima Island and the unusual art objects that adorn the island.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5475.html

Hope all’s well. Cheers Willow & Lynda