Home
Back

Dear visitor, if you know the answer to this question, please post it. Thank you!

Note that this thread has not been updated in a long time, and its content might not be up-to-date anymore.

How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/14 00:11
Dear community,

on a trip from fukuyama to iya by train we're planning a brief visit to Korakuen Garden in Okayama.
We are carrying large luggage which we have to store and pick up at coin lockers in Okayama station (which should be widely avalaible there as I found out studying a station-map-pdf previously posted here).

How much time should we plan for visiting the Korakuen Gardens?
Are 3,5 h enough?[/bs]
(Keepin in mind that we have to store and pick up the luggage, get to and back from the gardens by bus/tram or on foot and most importantly give ourselfes some time to enjoy the premises. Also I like to arrive at the platform a bit earlier than the sceduled departure and would prefer to avoid rushing at all)

We have to leave Okayama around 2ish, so it's either giving us 3,5-4,5h in Okayama or skip the gardens entirely.

Are the gardens worth the hazzle?
Also visiting Okayama castle in the short time we have would be just too much, right?

Your thoughts are much appreciated.
Regards
Jan




by DrRodriges (guest)  

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/14 19:55
Sorry for the false bold passage....
by DrRodriges (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/14 20:50
No problem. The garden is lovely but an hour or two would be plenty. You could probably do the castle as well in your timescale.
by Stan Norrell (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/14 21:19
As Stan says, you'll be fine, and will probably have time to spare after seeing the garden (unless you stop for tea there, or are lucky enough to see some event taking place there).

Where you will lose or gain time is in getting to the garden from the train station. Check it out on a map and you'll see that there's a long straight road from station to garden. There's a tram which runs up this road and drops you about 5 mins' walk from the garden. IIRC, trams run *fairly* frequently, but if you had to wait for a tram both ways then that could take say 20 mins from your total time. Taxis are the other option. It's a short trip, so should be fairly cheap.

Be aware that the garden has a lot of (a very rough type of) grass, and that in some seasons the grass is quite brown and withered, so you sort of have to imagine it being green to get the full effect. It's still a lovely garden, though.

We've done the same sort of thing you're proposing to do, in maybe more like 3.5 hrs. We had time to fit in lunch at the JR station before jumping on the train onwards. Plenty of food choices. We had a very good katsu & rice. Mmmmmm ;0)
by Winter Visitor (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/15 01:28
Wise words @Winter Visitor the walk is just that bit too long. Looks like a direct bus route from the station has started since my last visit http://korakuen-bus.jp/

I don't know what time of year you are visiting but do a photo search so you know what the garden will look like.
by Stan Norrell (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/15 02:48
Thanks Stan and WV for your thoughts!

So I think we'll definitely visit the gardens and see what time we have left for the castle.
(Though I think I prefer having a relaxed lunch at the station and wait for the train to depart instead of hurrying back to the station after squeezing in a visit to the castle)


by DrRodriges (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/15 02:57
A long lunch is seldom a waste of time..especially in Japan ;0)
by Winter Visitor (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/16 23:03
The garden takes about 1-1.5 hours to fully explore for most people, but the season can affect that (and obviously your own interest/pace/picture-taking/desire or lack thereof to visit every part/etc).

Are you visiting during February? I don't see where you say when your trip is, but the other poster mentions dead/dark grass which is definitely just a winter thing... The worst time to visit is in February and early March. It's not because the grass is dead (the dead grass is well-cut and looks quite pretty in January) but because they have a grass-burning ceremony in February. Directly after the ceremony, the grass is pure black, which can be quite beautiful and certainly interesting, but the black turns brown not long after so the February-early March period is a bit less beautiful. But once the plum blossoms start blooming in March the gardens various flowers bloom at all times on the year so that a new part of the garden becomes the "floral highlight" every month or so and the grass is of course green most of the year. It's a really dynamic garden.
by Rabbityama (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/17 03:24
@WinterVisitor
Yap, I'm with you there. Basically these days all we do in Tokyo is plan the day around which restaurants, cafes and bars to visit ^_^‹

@Rabbityama
We're visiting at the end of october (sorry, forgot to mention) so we can avoid the burnt gras. Also, thanks for your thoughts.
by DrRodriges (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: How long for a visit to Korakuen Garden 2017/6/17 03:29
@Stan

Big thanks for the link (I somehow missed your post the last time I looked at the thread)!
This will help a lot.
by DrRodriges (guest) rate this post as useful

reply to this thread