Golden Week

This past week was Golden Week in Japan. Golden week is a week of several holidays that fall in the same week. Most Japanese get most of the week off. We got Wednesday through Sunday off this past week. It was a nice break before the long stretch till summer vacation. Actually we have only had three weeks of school so far but vacation is always a good thing no matter when it happens. Anyway we had planned to go to Nagano, the site of the winter Olympics. I made online reservations for a hotel but at the last minute the online service cancelled so we didn't have a place to stay. I went to the travel agency in the school in hope of getting help finding a hotel. She spent a couple of hours looking and couldn't find anything. Of course it was a day before vacation so I am sure most things were booked. From previous expereince I know that basically Japanese all go to the same places on vacation. I surmised that most Japanese would be at the popular places and the other places would be empty. I asked the agent where Japanese weren't going and of course she looked at me like I was crazy.. I told her we wanted to go to some small town that was out of the way and had something interesting to see. She had no clue where to direct me so I thanked her, apologized for wasting her time and proceeded to find a place on my own. I went to my faithful "Lonely Planets Guide to Japan" and found a town about halfway between here and Hiroshima called Okayama. It is famous for having one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan and is the home of the "Peach boy -Momotaro" a famous legendary character. It is also known for the black castle pictured above. On Wednesday morning we left Nagao, the closest station to home and started a 4 hour trip to our destination. We decided to take the local trains, not the bullet train, because we wanted to actually see where we were going, not see it as a blur out the window. We were expecting to stand for a great portion of the trip but actually got a seat relatively soon and had a pleasant trip to our destination with a short stop in Himeji for lunch.
When we arrived in Okayama we went to a hotel we found in the guide book, The Washington Hotel, asked if they had any rooms, they did, and took a short nap. Okayama is a very pleasant, liveable city. It made me a bit envious. We live so far out in the country that going to Starbucks is a journey. It would be nice to live downton where you could eat out, go shopping etc without a trip. After visiting the Korakuen garden we searched for a place to eat and after a long search we went to a chain restaurant, The Asian Kitchen.
The next day we visited Kurashiki, a neighboring city which is famous for its old town. We watched part of a sword demonstration. I was not a good foreigner because when they asked me to participate in the demonstration with the local children I declined. I didn't want the children to praactice on me. When you go to these kinds of events, you will often be asked to participate as the represetative foreigner. When I was young and genki (energetic, gullible) I often said yes. This led to such awkward events like me attempting traditional dance in front of a thousand students, me singing "Let it be" in front of the entire student body and other events that are hard to forget no matter how hard I try.
After visiting Kurashiki we made the trip back home with a short stop in Amagasaki for lunch and shopping.
The lesson I learned from this trip are that you can travel in the popular travel times as long as you don't go to the same place that Japanese go. I heard from friends that parks in Kyoto were incredibly crowded as were other popular destinations. So I guess the secret of travelling in Japan is Go where they ain't.