Day 7 - More sightseeing in Kanazawa

Kenroku-en Garden is one of the three most beautiful traditional gardens. It was extensive and the day was hot, hot, hot. The sunny weather however allowed us very satisfactory photographic souveniers of the gardens. For more info and photographs visit websites Kenrokuen Gardens, Kenrokuen Park, and Kenrokuen Garden .





If you enlarge the second photo above (click on it) you can see the string guides set up to show where she has swept!




The way the old trees were staked was something to behold; stakes were telephone pole-sized in diameter and height, and a bunch of vertically oriented stakes gave the impression of giant aerial roots like those of Banyan trees. Besides their principal function, the stakes drew attention to the old trees.


We were standing here on a photo spot in Kenroku-en Gardens. Everybody who wanted to be photographed on the bridge had to queue up. There was a professional photographer who had the concession here and he had huge theatre spotlights and illumination umbrellas installed in the ground, wow. But visitors are still at liberty to snap their own.



Next door to Kenroku-en Gardens was Kanazawa Castle Park. The grounds paled in comparison to the excellence of KG but the castle was a magnificent-looking structure. We didn't visit inside as it was closed that day. It was burnt and rebuilt many times like most grand old buildings in Japan. Reconstruction of Kanazawa Castle is well documented.


We were informed that the castle roof tiles were made of lead so that they could be melted and made into ammunition for guns and artillery.

A quick visit to a pottery manufacturer and then a stroll in the hot sun through a Samurai residential neighbourhood. Didn't see any of those fighting warriors. Come to think of it, didn't see any Ninjas either. Or Ninjaturtles!




But we saw an interesting 4-into-2 covered garage.

Our tour continued with a limited express train to Kyoto arriving at 5.00pm at Kyoto Station across the road from our accomodations at New Miyako Hotel.

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