Every Japanese child knows Okayama before even being able to place it on a map: it is the land of Momotaro, the boy born from a giant peach who set off to fight ogres with a dog, a monkey and a pheasant. The legend greets travellers at the train station, in bronze, and local confectioners still sell kibi dango, the sweet rice dumplings that, in the tale, bought the loyalty of his three companions. Ships, for their part, dock to the south, at the port of Uno, on the Seto Inland Sea; about forty minutes by road separate the quays from downtown, through hills dotted with peach orchards and muscat vineyards, two agricultural prides of the prefecture. This drive opens one of the richest port calls in western Japan.

Korakuen, one of Japan's three great gardens

Completed in 1700 for the lord of the province, Korakuen garden ranks with those of Kanazawa and Mito at the official pinnacle of Japanese landscape art. Its close-cut lawns, rare in classical gardens, stretch out between ponds, artificial hills, tea plantations and pavilions where the lords received guests. Every step recomposes the landscape: a wooden bridge, a motionless heron, the dark silhouette of the keep rising above the maples. Allow a good hour and a half to tour it without hurrying.

The crow castle

Right opposite, on the other bank of the Asahi River, Okayama Castle raises its black façades, which earn it the nickname "crow castle," in contrast to the white heron of Himeji. Built at the end of the 16th century and destroyed in 1945, it has been rebuilt and now houses exhibitions on the Ukita and Ikeda lords; from the top floor, the view plunges onto the meanders of the river and the foliage of Korakuen. The footbridge linking the two banks lets you move from lawns to black towers in a smooth half-day.

Kurashiki, the Venice of rice granaries

Seventeen minutes away by train, the Bikan district of Kurashiki preserves a willow-lined canal and 17th-century warehouses, with white walls and black tiles, converted into museums, cafés and craft shops. Flat-bottomed boats glide beneath the stone bridges, poled along; allow half a day to wander from one end of the canal and its lanes to the other. It was here that the Ohara Museum opened in 1930, Japan's first collection of Western art: an El Greco hangs alongside Monet and Gauguin behind a façade with Greek columns. The area has also made denim its new pride; in the Kojima district, the workshops that launched Japanese jeans dress enthusiasts around the world.

Uno and the art islands

The docking port itself deserves some of your time. Uno serves as the gateway to Naoshima, the museum island just twenty minutes by ferry from the quay: Yayoi Kusama's yellow pumpkin set on its pier, Tadao Ando's underground museums and villages turned into galleries. Passengers whose ship stays in port for a long time can attempt the round trip; others will enjoy the contemporary sculptures scattered around the terminal, a legacy of the Inland Sea art triennials.

Putting your day together

Three directions, three Japans: the lords' garden, the merchants' warehouses and the patrons' museums. No choice is a bad one, and that is the most pleasant problem a port call can pose. Momotaro set out from here to seek treasure on an island; modern travellers need only choose theirs, watch in hand and with no ogres to fight.