More sightseeing in Okayama

While I am still working in Okayama prefecture, the lack of available hotel rooms in my assigned city this week has meant that I have had to stay in a hotel in Okayama city. While I had planned to go to Okayama city last weekend for a day trip, staying in Okayama city means that my regular driving time to get to my schools has increased from 10 minutes to nearly 1 hour. Furthermore, the hotel I am staying at does not have free parking. While my employer will reimburse me for parking, I won't be reimbursed until a later date. 

That aside, I did take the time to do a bit of sightseeing on Sunday. While I have already seen Okayama castle with my mother previously, we weren't able to visit Korakuen park due to the heavy rain at that time. As it was a sunny (albeit warm) day, I headed out to the park in the morning to avoid the heat. 

The cost to enter the park is 410 yen for anyone that's not a student or senior citizen, but it is a nice big park. Fortunately, there weren't a lot of people at the time, so I was able to enjoy the quietness and views that the park had to offer. I also took some time to take a few pictures within the park. I know I'm not exactly good at photography, but I also rarely get an opportunity to do any sightseeing in Okayama city due to my work. 

I also decided to have some ice cream that was being sold at one of the shops within the park. While there was the usual vanilla, chocolate and green tea flavours available, the shop was upselling what appeared to be their specialty, which was vanilla ice cream topped with a plum jam flavoured topping. I was expecting the jam topping to be sour, but was very surprised that it was sweet. 

Ice cream with plum jam topping seems to be the park's specialty

The park is also used to grow green tea leaves. A portion of the park has been put aside for this, and just as I was about to head off, they seemed to be preparing for some sort of event involving picking the tea leaves. However, it was starting to get warm, and I wanted to head off to the gym and grab lunch shortly after. 

It has been over a month now working out of town. I have been told that it shouldn't be too much longer, but it's depending on factors outside of the company's control. I'm hoping I'll be able to return home and to my regular duties by early to mid June, if all goes well. As much as I do enjoy working out here, I do miss working closer to home (even if I am working in Tokyo), sleeping in my own bed, building gunpla, and seeing my girlfriend on a more regular basis.