Day #9 Kanazawa, Kenrokuen Garden

Today was our day to see the second of three of the most famous and beautiful gardens in Japan.


We began with our free breakfast at the Toyoko-Inn where we are staying. We'll be staying at Toyoko Inn (business) hotels in the different cities throughout the rest of our stay except for one night at the Eiheiji Temple.

The breakfast was really quite substantial and we were delighted.

Auntie was able to hail a taxi for us right away.

When we got to Kenrokuen, we were startled by how large and ancient it all looked. Everything was breathtakingly beautiful.

One of the first things you see is this ancient pine tree with the crutches to help hold up its branches.

We were excited to see some early blooming cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, the taxi driver told us everything would be in full bloom NEXT week. Sigh.

It was actually almost ALMOST warm compared to how freezing it's been. Auntie convinced mom to try taking a stroll. We thought it might be good for mom to have a little exercise, too. However, we were careful to make sure she didn't overdo it.

As you can see the cherry trees were just beginning to bloom.

We took a whole TON of photos of every blossom we could find.

This extremely old cherry tree needed protection to keep it alive.

There were calendar worthy scenes all over the garden.

Art noticed these workers shaping one of the cherry trees. By the way, half of these photos I've been posting are Art's. I really, really did try to limit the amount of photos I posted but between Art and me, we took 566 photos today and we love almost every one. How could I choose?

Here we are at Neagarinomatsu. That means The Pine with the Roots Rising.

Yup, it really was rising out of the ground, all right.

We noticed these workers hard at work keeping the garden immaculate and in near perfection.

Oh my gosh! Another cherry tree in bloom! We stood there taking dozens of photos. Because there weren't all that many trees in full bloom, each blooming tree was more precious.

I have NO idea what the name of this bird is. Art said he thought it looked like a brown jay instead of a blue jay.

This is a plum tree which blooms earlier. You can tell the plum trees because the flowers bloom right on the trunk at times and at the crotch of branches.

There are hundreds of varieties of cherry trees planted in the garden and thousands of trees throughout.

Mom was feeling pretty cold, even with the 5 or 6 layers of clothing. With all the layers she couldn't close her jacket. We were just happy it wasn't raining and was almost sunny. It was scheduled to be cloudy and drizzly in the afternoon. This sort-of-sunny morning was a gift.

This cherry tree truly blew us away. We couldn't stop walking around it and admiring it. I'm not satisfied with our capture of the beauty of the gnarled trunk and graceful branches. It truly was a work of art, a collaboration of man and nature.

I thought this heart shape in the tree was interesting.

Oh darn! I forget what this building was.

And I don't know what the name of this bird is either. We've seen it at other places and thought it was very pretty. I couldn't believe I was actually able to get a shot because it flit around the tree with lightning speed.

We just had to get a group photo under this cherry tree.

Auntie said that when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the lanterns are lit at night, it's a truly awesome sight.

Ah well, it just means we'll have to come back some day.

"No way," said mom. "No more traveling in the cold for me."

Aha! Another cherry tree! After the rather full morning of walking and pushing the wheelchair over gravel, we were ready for lunch. Art said we should really get something good to eat.

We decided on a restaurant at the Kanazawa train station. There were so many restaurants that it took us quite a while to settle on one.

I chose this one. This is the fake representation, but my plate looked just like it and it tasted just as good as it looked. I'm afraid I had the biggest lunch. Art and Auntie had tonkatsu and mom had a tempura bowl. We all ate every bite.

After lunch, we took Mom and Auntie back to the hotel to rest and we returned to the Kanazawa station (above photo) to do some shopping. We didn't find anything we liked but Art wanted to keep looking and I was too tired. Therefore, I reassured Art that I could find my way back to the hotel by myself to also get some rest.

And that's when it happened. I walked down what I thought was the correct street. I kept walking and walking and walking, stopping to look around and walking some more. Things didn't quite look familiar but I figured I must just not know the area. Then I saw a huge temple and realized I had gotten myself lost. LOST!

I had to ask someone for help and they pointed me in the right direction. I managed to get back to the hotel only about 15 minutes before Art returned.

When Art told my mom and aunt what happened, they chuckled and said it was a family trait. I'd inherited their lack of a sense of direction.

Tomorrow, we'll be going to Eiheiji Temple. It is one of two main Zen headquarters in Japan. We'll stay there overnight and I know there will be no Internet connection. We'll be going to bed early and waking at 3:30 to meditate. Mom and Auntie are giving their excuses to skip it.

3:30??? Yikes!

Day #8 Takayama to Kanazawa

We started the morning with breakfast in the J-Hoppers hostel kitchen. We washed all our dishes, cleaned and left our room in as pristine a condition as when we arrived.

The melon bun and Japanese orange were really quite tasty. The hostel provided free tea or coffee.

There was a refrigerator that we thought was interesting. It had a fridge on top, the freezer in the middle and a vegetable drawer at the bottom.

After breakfast, we collected all our things and headed for the train station. There was a misunderstanding. They thought we were coming yesterday and were prepared for us. They weren't ready today but we managed to get to the train OK without their help... barely.

Once on board Auntie and mom had fun looking at the blog photos I posted. Auntie is thrilled that her "kids" are following her journey through this blog.

We made our connection from Nagoya to Kanazawa without too much hassle.

We caught a bullet train to Kanazawa. Woohoo! It was quite nice.

Once we reached Kanazawa, we left mom and auntie in a WARM waiting area while we braved the cold to find our next hotel. This time we're staying in a business hotel. It's called Toyoko-Inn and we love it! They have FREE Internet connection. Thus I'm able to get all caught up with our travels.

They also provide a FREE breakfast and dinner (granted it's Spartan) that's light but FREE... well sort of.

We decided to use a taxi to Kanazawa Castle. My aunt really loves castles and both sisters love history with a passion. They really got into an exuberant conversation with our taxi driver who also happened to be a history buff. I believe he was trying to impress my girls but I know they knew more than he did.

The castle has been under restoration and weren't allowing visitors. Luckily they had opened and we could go in. We saw them trimming this pine tree so that it had that distinctive Japanese shape.

Here they are ready to head on in. We could hardly hold auntie back.

We bumped into this docent outside and I know he loved sharing his knowledge with two ladies who could just not get enough of everything he showed them.

Granted it was all in Japanese so poor Art had to find his own information. There were little English recordings along the way that we appreciated.

Japan is really wonderful with accommodating the handicapped. I loved this chair lift for wheelchairs.

The steps at the castle were just impossible. You'd have to be a ninja to climb up these steps with ease. They were extremely steep. Mom was rather happy that she didn't even have to attempt it. Auntie would probably have mowed me down in her eagerness to get to the next level.

Here's a model of Kanazawa castle.

Interesting how the Japanese had moats around their castles, too.

This makes it look like the cherry blossoms are blooming everywhere but actually only ONE tree was blooming. We're here a week too early for the cherry blossoms.

Kanazawa castle belonged to a very rich lord. You'd think I'd remember his name but I've been rather bad on this trip and not getting my information down on my tablet so I can post it.

Back at the Toyoko-Inn, our bags had arrived safely from Takayama via the Takkyubin service. This is just the most amazing thing. We were able to send two (bulky) suitcases a great distance for just $27.00!

Our last thing to do was the laundry. We had quite a bit of it and it took a couple of hours to do it.

If I go to bed in five minutes, I'll have gone to bed before midnight. However, it feels great to be caught up. I can't believe we've been here for 8 days! Gracious! Half our trip is over!

Day #7 Shirakawa Snow

Before we started this trip, we did know that mom hates the cold. However, we thought the cold would be over by now and that spring would be pretty much in full swing. Shirakawago was the one place Art really wanted to see but it IS in the mountains and it could be cold.

It was. But at least there wasn't any snow to hinder our wheelchair access.


Well...

There was a downpour that seemed to last all night and then it stopped. I figured it was over so it wouldn't be miserable trying to get the wheelchair back to the bus station.

That's when Auntie looked out the window this morning and saw a blanket of snow everywhere.

It was awfully pretty though. Our minshuku (bed, breakfast and dinner house) hostess told us that this was a RARE late snowfall. She also said we should not miss going back up to the lookout to see the village draped in snow. This is what this place is quite famous for.
Art and I borrowed a couple pairs of the minshuku's rubber boots and dashed out to take photos.

And here's another bird that we couldn't identify.

I knew that my aunt who is quite artistic would not want to miss all this beauty so I rushed back to get her. She donned another pair of the boots and walked around the village with us. It was just awesome! Spectacular! It took our breath away!

Meanwhile, nice and toasty, mom got herself ready for another fabulous minshuku meal. This breakfast was gorgeous. Auntie, who is an epicurean savored each dish carefully.

And yes! We did finish every last morsel of food. No, no doboruku this morning.

It was really interesting to see the miso being cooked over a fire on top of a leaf. Auntie decided she needed to try making this, too. She actually managed to find a store that sold the makings of this dish.

We had to figure out how to manage the wheelchair, the luggage, and the packages in the snow. Mom opted to walk while Art carried the wheelchair.
It was hard to keep walking when there was so much to see and enjoy.

However, the snow was like a blizzard at times. Although mom was cold, she did admit, it was absolutely incredible.

We got on the shuttle for the short ride to the lookout. We were surprised that no one was there. We were the only ones on the bus. Hmmm... maybe the others had too much doburoku?

If you blow this photo up, you'll see that mom is looking quite miserable. She had about 5 layers of clothing on so she couldn't zip up the down coat.

The scenery was totally amazing. I just don't have words to describe the grandeur of the scenery all around us.



Looking down at the village, it looked like a miniature toy winter village.

We then came back to bus station, dropped mom and auntie off and headed back to the minshuku to return the rubber boots and collect the rest of our baggage.

Mom said the snow on the trees looked like cherry blossoms.

And then the sun came out!

We boarded our bus for the 1 hour ride back to Takayama.

Back in Takayama, it was snowing also. However, we had a fabulous curry lunch at Jakson. They were playing American music. I'm not a huge curry fan but this was too, too wonderful... especially on a cold day.
Yummm!

Dinner was okonomiyaki, which is sort of like an omelette. As we watched her cook, we ended up buying an extra dish which we weren't able to finish. We gave it to the desk clerk who happily accepted it.

We ordered four of these PLUS a noodle dish!

If we had doboroku, auntie would be smiling. We just had plain ol' Japanese beer.

I love the fact that we have to wear toilet slippers. I kept forgetting to change them back to regular slippers when I left the bathroom. Sheesh!