Kenrokuen garden is one of the must see gardens in Japan. We saw it before during the beginning of the spring (first half of February) so we didn’t expect to be much different at the end of January – but we were completely wrong. Here are the pictures from our “early spring” trip and below are the photos from yesterday (3oth of January 2011). I will just let you enjoy the photos – and Yes, I strongly recommend to visit Kenrokuen during the winter, the spring or any other season you can afford to do it. You will not be disappointed!

First, the tea houses/souvenirs shops just before the entrance to the park (they serve also good udon and soba in some of them):

A view toward the castle which is just in front of the park:

And let the Kanazawa Kenrokuen garden winter fairy tail begin :)

We were there before during early spring but this blog entry photos are all from the end of June still in the middle of rainy season. Apparently one of the advantages to visit Ritsurin park during this time is that you can see the irises gardens in the park flowering.

On the east part of the park is situated a small mountain – Shiun-san (紫雲山) or the Purple Clouds mountain. For purple I am not sure but it definitely was cloudy that day. It looked very wild also (I do not think there was any kind of fence on this site of the park  – there was no need of it anyway):

There are several interconnected  lakes in Ritsurin Park. The biggest one of them is covered almost completely by enormous lotuses. They were just about to start flowering:

The park is also famous for its black pine trees and the intricate forms of their branches:

The most beautiful part of the park though is the area around so called Nanko lake with the elegant Engetsu-kyo (Crescent Moon) Bridge:

Behind the lake you can see Kikugetsu-tei – a 17th century tea house:

Now when I have Ritsurin Park rainy and sunny (not yet uploaded) photos the only think left is Ritsurin Koen covered in snow. I hope one they to have this photos too :).

We spent 3 days in Takamatsu and the surroundings so expect many new photos (and movies).

The blossom was full or almost full (on some places you can see partially blooming trees).

We started again from Sakuranomiya station and went all the way to Tenma-bashi bridge (the distance is at least several kilometers). The cherry trees were continuing even further but we had to go back home.

Here is selection of some of the best photos.

I would like to start with one from the area around Kawasaki bridge (this is a small pedestrian bridge just before the big Tenma-bashi).  I think you get a good idea for the sakura roof under which we were walking:

Just two more photos with the white sakura roof above our heads:

On the last photo to the right you can see some of the colorful kiosks which are everywhere. They sell usually bear and all kinds of yakiniku (grilled meat). Most often – yakitori (grilled chiken), buta (pig) and ika (squid). Be careful with the prices though. A small can of bear will cost you usually two or three times more if you buy it from these kiosks (500 yen) than in a ordinary shop. Speaking for the devil… here is a picture of yakiniku (most probably yakitori):

Now back to sakura.

A very beautiful “pinku” sakura tree next to OPA Towers (the bamboo structure is here just to help model it in the desired form):

Okawa river:

Kawasaki bridge (if you look carefully you can see the Osaka castle to the right but even if you can not see it – do not worry – a zoomed version of it is incoming :))

Here comes and the Osaka castle (I think you can easily go all the way to it starting from Sakuranomiya station if you have around 1-2 spare hours). By the way – medieval castle, sakura trees and railways bridges – it definitely must be Japan:

The dawn was coming over Tenma-bashi area.

It is interesting that the darker was getting the more people were coming especially around the drinking/eating kiosks.

The last photos are from Tenma-bashi bridge area by night. This is the furthest point we reached even though the sakura trees were continuing alongside the Okawa river for much further:

Last but not least the Sakuranomiya bridge (apparently violet is one of the main fashion colors in Japan this year):

As I mentioned the blossom of the trees was almost full. Actually in some areas (apparently the more shadowy one) the trees were in rather early stages of blossoming. So I think that there is at least one more week of sakura in front of us (or at least in Kansai area).

The Park is quite big so if you want to see everything I advice you to go at least before lunch (the last admittance is at 16:30). We were there around 13:30 and we didn’t have at all time for the traditional  Japanese part (the Zoo was much bigger than we expected).

The easiest way to reach Tennoji Park (if you are coming from Umeda station) is Osaka JR loop line. It almost doesn’t matter in which direction you will take the loop line train – the difference is only 1 or 2 stations.

Already at the entrance there was a nice bonsai garden:

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And just in case you doubt there is a Zoo near by:

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And my favorite one – the dancing hippopotamus:

This is a general view from the first (modern) part of the Park:

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The Cabbage (Kale) Traditional Japanese Garden

By far the biggest attraction of this part of Tennoji koen was the cabbage traditional Japanese garden. To be precise the plant is actually kale (or a borecole). I learned that it originates from the Mediterranean but it was the Japanese people who first started to use it for decorative purposes and created the present ornamental variants (it was later re-introduced to the West as decorative flower (here is the article I took the information form)).   It seems that the low temperature transforms its green pigment into the nice colors you can see on the pictures (may be and that is why they use it for the winter Japanese decoration – kadomatsu):

Here are the rest of the pictures from the kale garden:

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Tomorrow I will continue with the Zoo which turned out to be more fun than we expected :)