Okayama City 岡山市

As in other Japanese cities, the origin of Okayama, a city of over 720,000 inhabitants, is based on the construction of the castle complex U-jô towards the end of the 16th century. Directly adjacent to the castle is Kôraku-en, one of the three famous landscape gardens of the Edo period. In February, hadaka-matsuri, the festival of the naked, takes place in the Saidai-ji temple.