Okayama: Into the Deep Red

It's spring in Okayama, which facing the Inland Sea of Japan in the south and the Chugoku Mountains in the north, is blessed with abundant nature. In this edition of Journeys in Japan, John Moore and his daughter Ruadh visit the area, which has a long history and rich culture. They look for "the traditional reds" of Japan. In Fukiya, they appreciate the earthy-rouge townscape. They taste a steamed sea bream dish the locals eat on joyous occasions. The fish's scales are a reddish pink, so people often call it "cherry blossom sea bream." The father and daughter also visit a swordsmith and observe how he forges a blade from the flaming red tamahagane, or raw carbon steel.