Travel / Tourism Spots in Okayama Area

Area

Okayama
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  Okinawa

Category

Travel / Tourism

Life Park Kurashiki Science Center

4.5

14 Reviews

Leisure / Hobbies

Okayama Pref. Kurashikishi Fukudachou Koshinden 940

Life Park Kurashiki Science Center is a multipurpose facility located in Koshinden, Fukuda-cho in the city of Kurashiki, just north of Mizushima Ryokuchi Fukuda Park. Kurashiki Science Center contains a planetarium that projects images of the entire sky, while the Kurashiki Archeological Center collects and exhibits artifacts dug up in the city. The Kurashiki Civic Learning Center is used for public lectures, while the Kurashiki Information and Learning Center and the Kurashiki Education Center offer classes and training in various fields.

プラネタリウムがリニューアルをしたそうで、かなり集客アップしていると新聞で読みました。入場料が500円にアップしていますが、65歳以上は無料とのこと。新しくなって見ごたえがあると友人とその孫が言ってました。私たちは4月に一度行きましたが、月曜日は休館日でした。平日は、午後の上映しかしていないようなので、次回はきちんと調べてから伺います。
Okayama Kinshu Kaikan

3.5

17 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Okayama-shi Kita-ku Marunouchi 1-1-15

This wooden, western-style building was built in 1923. It was originally built as a temperance center, to help rehabilitate those whose lives had been damaged by alcohol. It was used in a variety of temperance related activities. Despite its wooden structure, it survived the bombing of Okayama, and is now a registered Cultural Property with the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The first floor is a religious bookstore and a retro cafe. The second floor and third floor hold rental offices and meeting rooms.

There is a retro building beside Nishite Yagura scaffold. This used to be an office of anti-smoking movement. It was built in Taisho Time, about 100 years ago. Now it is a coffee shop.
Shingon Sect Bekkaku Honzan Yugasan Rendaiji Temple

4.0

16 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Pref. Kurashikishi Kojimayuga 2855

This temple is located in the Kojima Yuga area of Kurashiki City. It was built in 733 by Gyoki with the 11-headed Kanzeon Bodhisattva as its principal image. It is believed to by the sacred mountain for the mixing of Buddhism and Shinto that is adjacent to the Yugasan Shrine known as the head temple for warding off evil.

躁本殿に日本一とか書かれた厄除け大不動が鎮座しています。大きさと、ギラギラ輝く背後の火炎に圧倒されます。宝物館では円山応挙の絵を含め、多くの襖絵や壁絵が展示されています。飾られた生け花も見事です。
Roadside Station Miyama Park

Transportation

Okayama Pref. Tamanoshi Tai 2-4464

This roadside station is located along National Route 30 in the Tai area of Tamano City. It has a direct sales corner selling agricultural goods such as local vegetables and rice and fresh fish, and a cafe that offers items including rice bowls using grilled conger eel. In addition, besides the English garden “Miyama British Garden” inside the spacious park, there is a walking and play zone where you can enjoy nature throughout the four seasons starting with the approximately 7,000 cherry trees.
Sakushu Castle East Mansion

3.5

15 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Tsuyama-shi Nakanocho 19

A 10-minute drive from Tsuyama Interchange on the Chugoku Expressway. This free to access service area is a restored Edo period townhouse with eye-catching classic white walls and a fire lookout tower. Built in 1993 the original townhouse on this site was used for educational services in roles including a primary school, the Okayama Prefectural Tsuyama Handicraft Vocational School, a secondary school, and a preschool. It's a two-story wood constructed building with plastered Namako patterned walls, latticed windows, and a roasted cedar exterior. The interior reproduces the elegance of an Edo period townhouse. Behind the house is the Danjiri Exhibition Hall in which four Danjiri portable shrines that have been designated Cultural Properties of the Prefecture are displayed.

駐車場と建物の北側に数台のだんじりが展示してあります。凝った彫刻で立派です。建物自体は広い畳敷きの立派なもので、ふすまがきれいです。
Kumayama English Garden

3.5

15 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Pref. Akaiwashi Tonodani 170-1

A highly unique English garden created on the grounds of a closed elementary school located a 20-minute drive from the Sanyo Interchange on the Sanyo Expressway. The garden was designed by English gardener and researcher Kay Yamada. The old school building is used as a multipurpose hall for parties and events, and as a greenhouse where rare plants are kept. The garden holds ceramics classes, aromatherapy experiences, flower arranging classes, and more. There's also a cafe where you can enjoy a break while taking in a view of the garden's seasonal flowers and plants.

花がメインです。イベントもやれるようです。無料開放してました。バラの花等が好きな人には良いと思います。
Old Samurai Manor

3.5

14 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Maniwa-shi Katsuyama 651

This gallery is about a 10-minute walk from JR Chugoku-Katsuyama Station. It uses the well-preserved manor of Watanabe Tobe, a retainer who served Miura Akitsugu. This upper class warrior's home has been here for some 200 years, and is also known as Watanabe-tei. Beyond the Nagayamon gate you'll find the main hall and earthen-walled warehouses. In 1986, the warehouses were renovated to repair deterioration with age and now one is used as a gallery. It displays armor, clothing, old documents, and other materials related to the samurai family.

勝山に残る唯一の武家屋敷。このあたりの高台は武家屋敷のあったところで、渡辺家は家老の次の位の家柄とのこと。家柄を反映して、門構えが立派です。入館料200円で邸内見学させていただきました。門構えや玄関、客間が最も広くて立派につくってあり、家族が暮らす座敷などは奥の方。部屋と部屋の間に廊下などはない。体面を重んじる武士の家らしいつくり。
Hiruzen-Kogen Heights Cycling Route

4.5

11 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Maniwa-shi Hiruzen

This biking and walking trail is in the Hiruzen area of Maniwa City. With a total length of 30 kilometers, it seems to wrap around Mt. Hiruzen. The scenery is spectacular, with views of the Hiruzen Three Peaks, Mt. Daisen, and more, for an easy taste of nature. There are bicycle rental offices, and you can even try a tandem bicycle for two limited to the Hiruzen Heights Bicycle Trail. The Roadside Station Hiruzen Kogen also offers children's bicycle rentals, so it's recommended for families.

I liked the course so much that I did it twice. Landscape changes so its more interesting. You go through hills, pastures, fields and down the river. There are many flowers on the way. Take good...
Gion Shrine

4.0

13 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Kurashiki-shi Shimotsui 1-13-16

A six-minute drive from the Kojima Interchange on the Seto Chuo Expressway. Perched on a hill on the western side of Shimotsui Port, this shrine is on the grounds of the former Nagahama Castle. It was founded during the Muromachi period as Nagahama-miya Shrine to house the local tutelary god of the castle but then in the Edo period the god Gion Okami was transferred to the shrine and the name of the shrine changed to Gion Shrine. As a guardian of the sea, Kitamaebune shipping route sailors donated the tamagaki fence that surrounds the shrine as a prayer for safety and it bears the names of the sailors. The grounds of the shrine offer a great view point of both the Seto Ohashi Bridge and the port. Around here, you will find many monuments engraved with poems about Shimotsui and Setouchi composed by poets and novelists who visited this town.

須佐之男命を祭神とする古式に則る神社。境内には昭和天皇を始めとする歌碑句碑がたくさんある。瀬戸大橋と瀬戸内海の眺めは絶景。
Nishie Residence

4.5

11 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Takahashi-shi Nariwacho Sakamoto 1604

This important historical and cultural building left from the height of the Edo period is about a 25-minute drive from Nimi Interchange off the Chugoku Expressway. In the Edo period, the Nishie house fell under direct control of the government and became an official location for the local government representative. The structure retains its condition from the Meiji period. After the family lost their positions, they took up work in iron oxide dye (or red ocher) making for paints and pigments, with apparently great success. In addition to experiencing the novel forms, fresh color, and original melanterite designs, you can try red ocher dyeing yourself.

You will be excited to find the residence is the origin of Bengara ,a kind of red color painted in Imari Porcelain which is very famous to export to Europe in 19 century. Ukiyoe was painted the paper...
Former Residence of Mitsukuri Genpo

3.5

13 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Tsuyama-shi Nishishinmachi 6

A 10-minute drive from the Tsuyama Interchange on the Chugoku Expressway. The former home of late Edo period Western Scholar Mitsukuri Genpo where he lived until age 13, located within the Joto Townscape Historical Preservation District along the former Izumo Highway. In 1976 the main building, kitchen, courtyard, and water wall were faithfully restored to how they would have been during the late Edo-period and the house was designated a National Historic Site as a prime example of Edo-period form. The house and grounds are free to enter and Mitsukuri's family tree is on display in the storehouse.

平日だったためか、津山観光センターに車を置くことができ（駐車無料）、重要伝統的建物群保存地区の津山市城東地区へ徒歩で向かった。ここと隣の「津山洋学資料館」はセットで訪問されることをお勧めする。当方は箕作を「みつくり」と読むことも知らなかった。西洋医学を日本に伝えた重要人物がここ津山にいたとは。まさか「美作」の字源？この旧家も無料で開放されており、庭も含め大変端正に手入れがなされていた。訪問者に...
Bengarakan

4.0

5 Reviews

Leisure / Hobbies

Okayama Pref. Takahashishi Nariwachoufukiya

"A 40-minute drive from the Niimi Interchange on the Chugoku Expressway. A museum operating out of a renovated Meiji period ferric oxide (known by the Dutch-derived term ""bengara"" in Japanese) factory in Fukiya Furusato Village. Fukiya Furusato Village was designated a National Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 1977 and it was ferric oxide production which created the village's foundation. The museum presents how the factory made ferric oxide, which was developed as a red pigment. The elegant museum building's walls are painted with ferric oxide paint; inside visitors can get a taste of the village's heyday when ferric oxide production was at its height and experience the quiet passage of time through the surrounding old townscape."

ベンガラを精製しているいわば工場群といったところです。とは言え当時のこと随分と人力が必要のようです。駐車場も広いので行き易いと思います。
Miyama British Garden

3.5

13 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Pref. Tamanoshi Tai 2-4470 Roadside Station Inside Miyama Park

This garden is located inside Miyama Park along National Route 30 in Tai, Tamano City. It opened in 2000 as a commemoration project for the 60th anniversary of Tamano becoming a city. Designed by the British garden technician Peter Thurman with the concept of a traditional British garden in the 20th century, it is possible to enjoy the four seasons in the garden with its eight separate gardens each with different themes.

たまたま行った日が、高校生のイベントをしている日だったのでいつも以上にいろいろとデコられていてかわいらしかったです。
Takahashi City Local Museum

3.5

13 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Takahashi-shi Mukocho 21

This museum is about a 10-minute walk from JR Bitchu-Takahashi Station. The main building was the old Takahashi Combined Elementary and Higher Elementary School, which was built in 1904, and is now a designated municipal Important Cultural Property. It was preserved as an important representative of early Meiji architecture in 1972. Inside, it holds a collection of over 3,000 pieces of daily life items gathered with help from residents, and range from the Edo period through the early Showa eras. They offer a tangible sense of history. The ceiling of the meeting hall, with its Momoyama-style double-height stepped construction, offers a grand sense of the Meiji period.

説明書からですが、明治３７年旧高梁尋常高等小学校として造られた明治洋風様式の建物です。現在は市の重要文化財として指定され、地元の諸道具などが展示しています。
Honrenji Temple

4.0

11 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Setouchi-shi Ushimadocho Ushimado 3194

This ancient Nichiren Buddhist temple is situated in a fishing village's residential area a 15-minute drive from the Oku Interchange on the Okayama Blue Line. The temple's reception hall was used to lodge Korean delegations to Japan in the Edo period and has a garden which records state was created by the celebrated artist Kobori Enshu. The temple's wooden tile hip roofed main temple, Banjindo hall, and unusual four-legged Chumon gate have been designated National Important Cultural Properties, while its three-story pagoda and Soshido hall dedicated to the temple's founder have been designated Important Cultural Properties by the prefecture. In October 2017, the temple was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World heritage listing concerning records of Korean envoys to Japan.

牛窓のしおまち唐琴通りから石段を上がっていったところにある本蓮寺で、三重の塔が遠くからも見え、牛窓の古い街並みに映えてます。山門を上がると本堂、番神堂、祖師堂などがあり、広い寺院。海辺にある三重塔は全国でもここだけとのこと。
Ushimado Marine Culture Museum

3.5

11 Reviews

Leisure / Hobbies

Okayama Setouchi-shi Ushimadocho Ushimado 3056

Located a 15-minute drive from the Oku Interchange on the Okayama Blue Line. A museum with exhibits showing the boat shaped portable shrines used in the Autumn Festival and materials related to the Korean delegation to Japan during the Edo period when they made port in Ushimado. The museum uses the former Ushimado Police Headquarters (a Registered Cultural Property of Japan) known for its white walls and stained glass in the entranceway. The giant Japanese sago palm tree outside the entrance is estimated to be over 150 years old. The boat shaped floats with beautifully carved and detailed dragon head are registered as Important Tangible Ethnic Cultural Properties of the Prefecture and there are two on display here in the museum.

元々は明治20年に建てられた岡山県警西大寺警察署の分署として建てられ、その後昭和52年まで牛窓警察署だった建物です。かなり趣きのある建物で、前には大きなソテツの木が植えられています。今は、江戸時代に立ち寄った朝鮮通信使と牛窓のだんじりに関する資料が展示されています。
Hiruzen Daisen Skyline

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Maniwa-shi Hiruzen
Kurashiki City Oyama Meijin Memorial Museum

4.0

10 Reviews

Travel / Tourism

Okayama Kurashiki-shi Chuo 1-18-1

A 20-minute walk from JR Kurashiki Station. This memorial museum is dedicated to Kurashiki local 15th Lifetime Meijin shogi chess master, Yasuharu Oyama. Master Oyama was an A-class ranked shogi player for 45 years and received five lifetime titles. He was one of the greatest and most unprecedented shogi players ever recorded. In the museum you'll find a number of championship cups and hanging scrolls written in his hand as well as other mementos on display including his trademark glasses. To further promote Master Oyama's passion for teaching and diffusion of shogi special shogi classes for children and shogi workshops for adults are held at the museum.

午前9時からの開館で、入館料無料とありがたい。私が少年の頃は、名人と言えば大山名人だったので、たまたま見つけたこの記念館に興味津々で訪問した。升田名人との対局の写真の他、たくさんの写真や棋譜が展示され、将棋の勝負の緊張感を感じることができた。記念品も販売されている。
Bizen Latin America Museum

4.0

10 Reviews

Leisure / Hobbies

Okayama Bizen Hinasecho Hinase 241-10

A two-minute walk from the Hinase Sogoshisho-mae bus stop or eight-minutes from the JR Hinase Station. This art museum is located close to the Bizen Private Hinase junior high school. As the name suggests they feature exhibits focusing on Latin American Culture which isn't very well covered in Japan. One of the landmarks of the museum is the outer wall which is covered in nearly 16,000 pieces of Bizen-ware pottery. The principle part of their collection was donated by the late Morishita Seiichi, some 2100 pieces with a focus on earthenware, clay figures, and textiles made in the ancient American continent. The museum is normally open on weekends and holidays but is open on other occasions as well.

我が国唯一の古代中南米美術専門美術館。オリエント美術館、マコンデ美術館、ルーブル彫刻美術館に匹敵する地域限定一点突破型ミュージアム。ペッカリーとホセ艦長のさえずる文明展を見に行きました。入館料７００円、ＪＡＦ等割引で６００円。ＱＲコードでさえずるボトルや土偶の音を聴いてもらえるコーナーが何か所もあり、スマホにＱＲコードリーダーをセットして回ると効果的。ガラケー保有者には吹けど踊らず。写真撮影(ノー...
Kasaoka Municipal Chikkyo Art Museum

4.0

9 Reviews

Leisure / Hobbies

Okayama Kasaoka-shi Rokubancho 1-17

This art museum, opened in 1982, is a five-minute taxi ride from JR Kasaoka Station. It's dedicated to share the achievements of Japanese painter Chikkyo Ono with posterity. Many posthumous works have been donated, and it has received support from the national and prefectural governments. Ono's works include gentle paintings that change with the light of the seasons, and indeed offer subtle shifts even through the course of the day, and they almost seem alive with the breath of nature. The museum also holds limited time special exhibits.

笠岡市出身の日本画家・小野竹喬を顕彰する美術館だ。開館に当たっては遺族から作品を多数寄贈されたという。ちょうど令和元年（2019年）は、竹喬（1889年生）の生誕130年にあたるだけに、年度内は特別展が目白押しに予定されていた。展示だけでなく、竹喬という日本画家がいかに誕生したかという研究にも取り組んでおり、一代限りの人ではないことがうかがえる。それにしても井原市の田中美術館といい、井笠地区は郷...

Okayama City / Around Korakuen Kurashiki Tamano Around Bizen and Ushimado Kibiji Takahashi / Fukiya Hiruzen Highland / Tsuyama / Mimasaka Three Hot Springs Ibara / Kasaoka

Travel / Tourism

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Okayama Areas

Overshadowed by Hiroshima to the west and the Kansai region to the east, Okayama is an easy spot to miss but a nature-rich gem where the Seto Inland Sea laps at its toes and peach and grape farms complete its interior. One of Japan’s Three Great Gardens, Koraku-en in Okayama city is well worth a visit before progressing to Kurashiki, where preserved wooden Edo buildings line the picturesque canal.