We only spent the morning here, before taking the afternoon to drive to Kyoto, but I could have easily spent longer here. It was fantastic.

This is one of the iconic sights in the famous Kenrokuen Garden – the Kotoji Lantern. It has two legs instead of the usual one.
This garden is one of the top 3 gardens in Japan. It was built beside the castle. The first fountain in Japan is here.

It’s famous because it encapsulates all 6 excellent elements of a Japanese garden. This is extremely difficult to do because the 6 elements cancel each other out.

Spaciousness is the opposite of Seclusion.

Artifice is the opposite of Antiquity.

Watercourses are usually low, while Panoramas need to command the heights.
This garden has them all.

The garden was established in 1676, when the 5th lord of the Kawa domain shifted here and built a garden beside his castle. The family kept the garden until 1874, when it was given to the public.

Every winter, ropes like these are suspended around the trees so that the heavy snow won’t break their branches. We’ve been seeing them all over the place.

Stones representing the seven gods of good fortune have been placed here. The 12th lord created this so he could see it from his study.

“It’s best to see the beautiful garden under the light spring rain, “ said Ben in the bus this morning . Of course, it’s raining, so he would say that.

This is the first non-Buddhist bronze statue made in Japan. This place was a samurai stronghold and there was a rebellion in 1877, 9 years after the emperor Meiji took power away from the Shogun. It didn’t go well for the samurai, but at least they have this statue of one of their leaders to comfort the spirits of those who died.

Now, I’m not one to like getting rained on but even with the rain and huddling under my Hampton Court Palace umbrella that I got in England back in 2015, I like it here. It’s a place where it’s designed for people to slow down and notice the little details; the trunks of trees entwined together, the moss on the trunks, a splash of a flower, the artful arrangement of rocks on an island…

You could spend all day here, you really could, and I probably would if it wasn’t raining but it is a very beautiful place.

I was taken by the swoosh of the tree trunk here.

This is the oldest fountain in Japan, built in the 1860’s. It works by natural water pressure caused by a difference in elevation between two ponds, which was very difficult to do, back in the day.

Then, I walked over the bridge to see Kanazawa Castle.

For some reason, as soon as I walked through these massive gates, I was captivated.

Look at this gate! You’d be bashing at this for a good long while before you’d break through.

Zoom in on the stones in the wall. The little ones were put there to stop invaders being able to use the gaps between the big stones for footholds to climb the wall.

This gate has been here for over 300 years and is one of the best preserved ones in Japan.

It’s spacious in here.

It doesn’t take much imagination to picture soldiers being trained here.

I don’t know why this place grabbed me so much. Was it the crows flying, calling overhead?

The door opening onto nothing. Imagine trying to get up there to attack it?

All I know is, if I’m ever back here again, I’d like to be taken through with a guide so I can find out more about it. But we were racing the clock.
Our next stop was a gold leaf class.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much enjoyment from this activity, but I ended up having a lot of fun.

99 % of the gold leaf work is now done here. In olden times it was made in Kyoto.

Pure gold isn’t very durable, so the gold is mixed with silver and copper.

1 gram can make 60 pieces, so it’s pretty thin.

I chose a cat and a star from the stencils provided. Al, one of the guys at our table, was by far more adventurous.

I don’t know how he had the patience.

After we cut the stencil out and put the sticky paper over the lids, the gold leaf was smoothed on over the top.

Look how mine turned out! I was pretty happy.

So was Al. After a month, we have to put clear nail polish on the top to preserve our good work.

We had half an hour to wander around the shops. I saw one of our group stepping out of a shop, clutching a gold leaf ice cream. 

“The gold leaf tastes like plastic wrap,” someone else complained. I was happy to let others try it out. I can’t see the sense in eating gold that will simply travel right through me.

I enjoyed looking through the shops here. There were a couple of ceramic places that had some exquisite pieces. Again, only having carryon luggage helped, because I have to keep in mind both weight and space. Also, my rule of only buying things you absolutely love helps too.

I heard a guide talking about how sake makers would hang a green ball like this outside the shop when they had new stock come in. By the time the ball turned brown, the sake was ready.

After this, the rest of the day was a long bus ride to Kyoto.

This should be interesting. Kyoto was where all the emperors lived for over a thousand years. It wasn’t bombed during the war because of all the history.
I’m looking forward to the next two days. Hey, I’m going to see a real geisha tomorrow night!

Dad Joke of the Day: