|
|
It was billed as one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan,
and we could believe it. (Slightly bigger image, much bigger). |
Sunday, 25 May: onward to Kanazawa
Half a day in Takayama, then we went to Kanazawa. My journal is very detailed for this day, so I’ll quote:
«Breakfast was Japanese style, kneeling or sitting on the floor. I tried sitting, holding myself up with one arm while eating with the other, which tired out my left so much that I decided to try kneeling, au japonais. This was a stretch, but after a while it seemed not too bad. I did worry that my knees might make me sorry later, but as it happened, there seemed to be no ill effects.
at the market
«The breakfast itself was very fine, with two kinds of fish. Octopus too, which I had finally to swallow pretty much unchewed.
Takayama street
«Our train would be at eleven, so we had plenty of time after breakfast, and our plan was to check our bags in the coin lockers at the station, then wander about town and check out a tea-house that Mason had spotted. The house would open only at ten, and Mike was clearly worried that this would press us too much for time. But we did wander through the morning market, photographing much but buying nothing (or little, anyway). The tea house was very pleasant, and I could get an excellent cup of coffee there.
«We left in plenty of time to get to our platform. Mike has been buying seat-reservations, which naturally specify the car. It’s not always possible to know where to stand on the platform to get your correct car, but in this case, the train stopped with our car where we were expecting it.
«This was the second day of travel through spectacular and dramatic landscape. Steep ravines covered with dense greenery, very beautiful. Loads of tunnels, too, some with the track curving within.
«We had ten minutes to change at Toyama, and this time we guessed wrong about where to stand, and had to walk through three cars to get to the right one. Less interesting this leg was, but shorter, arriving at Kanazawa at 1:23.»
«Then we had to get to our hotel, which would be near many of the attractions we wanted to see, but a ways from the station. It took the English-speaking information-desk attendant quite a wuile to find our hotel on her map, and then decide on a bus that would take us there. So it was a 2:00 bus that we took two stops to the neighborhood of out hotel. A short walk from the bus stop, and we were there.
«Before we went up to our rooms, there were some questions. Laundry service? [No] Wifi? [No] Restaurants nearby? [Not a big choice]. Anyway, we went upstairs to dump our stuff and provide ourselves with those things we wanted to take with us while sightseeing.
«Then it was out to the main street where our bus had dropped us off, and to a sushi joint that the front desk had told us about. We sat at the counter and could watch the sushi chef make our requests. He was jolly, with good English, comparatively. Mark and I made little piggies of ourselves, and I think Mason gorged equivalently. But we all were more than full when we left.»
«On to the local Garden, considered one of the finest in Japan, and it was fine indeed. I think we all took lots of pictures…»
As for the pictures, first the block to the right:
towards the beginning of our visit to the Garden,
we passed a very interesting fountain, which you see in the upper left
picture (big image,
small). There’s no pump, it’s just piped
from a pond that’s sufficiently high above this that there’s
enough pressure to lift the water that high. The upper right picture
(big image, small)
shows Cindy after crossing the stone bridge, and the edge of Mark about
to cross as well. About the three in the bottom row, little to say, except
that the middle one was taken from about the same place as the picture at
the top of this page, and in the right one, that little tower is clearly
something Buddhist, but I don’t know the significance. On the left, the
statue of the worthy disturbed me more than I’m sure it should have. To
my uneducated eye, this looked like very Chinese style, and I found it
jarring in such a classically Japanese setting
(big image,
small).
Continuing now
from my journal:
«The local Castle is hard up against the Garden, but by the time we left the Garden, it was about 5:00, and closing would be at six. So we skipped the Castle proper, settling for a quick tour of the Castle’s own garden. It was 5:55 by the time we got out to the street.
«We all agreed on leaving the Castle grounds that we needed beer. We saw a place called Pacific Hotel, where there was a small bar right at the entrance, and where draft beer was seen on the sidewalk menu. We sat in front, right on the street, and numerous people walking by seemed very surprised to see folks sitting there enjoying themselves. At one point, a stylishly-dressed youngish man came in, pretty clearly the proprietor, and gave me a big smile, almost conspiratorial. He left with a package soon after, and again I got the big smile. It was clear that both he and the staff were glad to have us.»
«Then we walked around looking for a restaurant, and the first one we tried was too small and full to take five people. We found one where we all had a very light repast, involving a bottle of generic Italian red wine, really vin ordinaire. And then to our hotel and bed, after M and I tried to do a little sink-laundry.»
|
|
One more word on the pictures above: the big one at the left shows a beautiful tree being saved from oblivion by a long support (big image, small). I liked that a lot. And the unusually-supported lamp in the lower right of the block of four seemed to be the signature-image of this Garden.
