Kenrokuen

I must apologize. Yesterday I was interrupted before finishing adding notes to the pictures, so today I went back and added them. Therefore, if you are interested, you might go back and read the notes.

 One of the interesting features of the park is that there is a winding stream that is laid out on one side of the pond. This stream is set up so that there is a natural current in it. I could not figure out where the water came from, but there are no mechanisms involved - the park is hundreds of years old. The pyramid-like objects are made from a pole and ropes. They protect the trees from the heavy snow.

 No matter what direction you looked in, the park was (is) beautiful.

 This tree is support by wooden poles that rise out of the stream.

 On one side of the park, you can look out over the city of Kanazawa. Of course, when it is snowing this hard, you can not see much of the city.

I thought that this looked like a black and white photo of a cherry tree just beginning to bloom.

This small group of large trees had a stone pagoda, mixed in among the trunks.

The same pagoda but from a different angel.

Another tree that has branches spreading so far from the trunk that they must be supported. These trees are very old and reminded me of bonsai, but they were full size rather than miniature.

In Kanazawa

 In this shop everything was covered with gold. I kind of liked the owls even though they were gaudy.

 We bought castella here, which we brought back to give to people as souvenirs. Castella is the Japanese version of the cake that the Portuguese trades used to eat when they first entered Japan. It is extremely good.

 We left the area and, after driving across town, put the car in a different parking lot. We then walked across the street and up a hill.

We could see the castle off to our ritht.

At the top of the hill a little building turned out to be a ticket office for entering Kenraukuen, a huge garden constructed by the local rule who is said to have been the richest man in Japan at the time.

After we passed though the entrance, we entered the garden itself.

In the middle of the garden there is a fairly large pond. This must have a pretty serious construction project because it is on the top of the hill, in every direction the land falls off to lower elevations.

This is one of the more famous views in the garden. It was difficult to find a place to stand while taking the picture. There was a large crowd of people all trying to get into the best positions.

This is the small building that you can see in the distance on the right in the last picture. It is a tea house, but it was closed for the winter.

In Kanazawa

 This was the entrance to a restaurant. We already had a reservation at a restaurant in a different part of the city so we did not go in.

 This shop sold pottery covered with large amounts of gold leaf. I did not really like the gold leaf. It made everything look gaudy.

 Back outside again, we found that it was snowing harder.

 Even though there was no one wearing a kimono, the street still had a sense of old Japan about it.

 In another shop there was an internal garden and beyond that a display of bamboo trunks.

 My brother-in-law decided to sit and rest while looking at the garden.

 Near the door there was a very effective flower arrangement.

 Outside again and the snow was even heavier.

If I remember correctly, the square building was a branch office of a bank.

Arriving in Toyama

 As we got near the end of the line, there were a few more people on the train, but no many.

 At the end of the line, I had to move to another track where I could catch the train going down the coast. There was a train there when I reached the correct track, so I got on. However, I luckily realized that it was the wrong train and got off before it started.

 Once that train had left, I could see a man on the other platform. He was selling boxed lunches, bento in Japanese. This time I got off at the correct station and my wife and her brother were waiting for me. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up on family gossip.

The next morning we left soon after breakfast. My brother-in-law was driving us to Kanazawa, were we were planning to go sightseeing.

 Our first stop was only a few kilometers away. The town has fountains were natural mineral water just bubbles up out of the ground. If you bring containers, you are allowed to take as much as you wish. This woman had 16 two-liter bottles that she was filling.

 About 20 meters away, there was another fountain, where a man was filling PET bottles. My sister-in-law had brought a couple of bottle and filled them. While we were waiting for the man to finish, we all tasted the water, using a cup that was chained to the fountain. The water was pretty good, but it had a kind of slick taste. It apparently makes very good coffee, though.

 We then left for Kanazawa and it snowed almost all the way. It took a little of two hours.

 When we got to the city, we parked the car in a public lot, and walked up the street. We passed this building that I thought was quite interesting.

 We then turned a corner and went about 300 years back in time. This street is a shopping area that sells traditional products, mostly used for souvenirs.

The snow was flurrying, so one minute you needed an umbrella and the next you did not. Many of the shops along this section were restaurants or stores that sold artistic goods. In one of them everything is covered with gold or platinum leaf. Very expensive and very gaudy.