KIBI PLAINS TO OKAYAMA CHERRY BLOSSOMS

After doing some last minute research, I decided to head from Fukuyama to Soja where another cycling course starts/ends. The Kibi Plain cycling course leads you through several historical points of interest such as Bichu-kokubun-ji, Tsukuriyama burial mound, and Koumori-ya burial mound. The course eventually spits you out around the Okayama area if you begin from Soja. The road to Soja was initially crappy and narrow, but it soon opened up with less traffic and it was a pretty nice ride there. The weather was warm and nice. For lunch I ate at a real good udon shop, I ordered the tempura udon and it came with a big piece of tempura shrimp on top.

I arrived to Soja station and found a map that showed me where the cycling course begins. I never did find the official start point of the cycling course but I spotted the 5 story pagoda of Bichu-kokubun-ji and rode towards it. On the way I saw a sign that said Tsukuriyama so I took a quick detour to check it out. It is a big ancient burial mound, and Tsukuriyama translates to “built mountain.” Being that there are houses and farms right around it, the mound didn’t really impress me. Instead, it made me disappointed once again at Japan’s almost non-existent conservation efforts. The government allows ugly hotels and such to be built in areas that should be protected…America’s National Park system is light years ahead of Japan.

I went off topic there…back to my blog. After checking out Tsukuriyama, I rode over to Bichu-kokubun-ji, and then to Koumori-ya, which translates to “bat house.” Koumori-ya has a tunnel dug into the mound with a shrine inside of it. This was much more interesting. I eventually found the cycling route and started heading to Okayama. The route ended quite a bit ways out from the city center so I headed towards Okayama Castle. As I neared the city center, it started getting crowded as it was right around the time everyone was getting off of work. Furthermore, the cherry blossoms were blooming so everyone was heading over to where I wanted to go. The Japanese really take cherry blossom viewings seriously…it’s like a big party with co-workers eating and drinking together.

Okayama Castle, nicknamed “Crow Castle” because it’s black, looked cool but it’s a pretty small castle and I didn’t bother paying the entrance fee to go inside. Instead I went to the Koraku-en which is the garden next to the castle. It’s supposed to be one of the top gardens in Japan. I stayed for thirty minutes until closing time and was pretty impressed with the scenery. Afterwards I rushed towards the port to catch the last ferry out to Shodoshima. Okayama was too big a city and I wanted a full day in Shodoshima. By the time the ferry arrived to Shodoshima it was already past 9pm so I decided I’ll just squat camp at a nearby park I found. It was pretty cold and it wasn’t the best place to sleep but it saved me some money so that was good.