Tsuyama Walk

A wild cherry on the riverbanks

We enjoyed hopping over these stepping stones to reach the other side of the river bank. 

After our visit to the garden we wandered through the streets of Tsuyama back towards the Castle where we would view the sakura in the evening.  

Making our way to the river, hopping over via the stepping stone crossing, we came across a beautiful mountainside temple dedicated to Kannon, Goddess of Mercy. It was peaceful and quiet and we liked how all the guardian figures had little rain hats to protect them from the weather.  

Leaving the temple we walked alongside the river down towards the historical area of Joto street. Along the way we passed a few other shrines and admired the carp kites hanging over the river near the castle. 

Joto  Street, Tsuayma

There were a number of interesting architectural details on the buildings and a proliferation of pot plants were also popular. We spotted a large variety of different pansies in particular and ornamental cabbages were also common. 

As we walked back from Joto street towards the Castle around the base of the hills we noticed a number of houses looking a bit worse for wear. Tsuyama is small and quiet for a regional city centre and it suffers from being off the train routes. It was a long slow local service train in and out of town and most people seem to travel here by car from the much large city of Okayama. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why we saw so many houses that were crumbling apart. 

This long street back (it runs parallel to Joto street) also features a number of small temples and shrines and one of them had a spectacular weeping cherry tree that we particularly admired