Archive for 'Japanese Gardens'
The Momiji Diaries – Part 12- Gekkekian Okura sake brewery
18th November, Uji
We travelled by coach to the Gekkekian Okura sake brewery and museum in Fushimi district, south of Kyoto en route to Uji. We were shown around the factory, which produces a small amount of hand made sake, while it’s mass production plant is elsewhere in Fushimi and Osaka. Sake is made from fermenting [...]
The Momiji Diaries – Part 11 – Kanazawa
17th November, Kanazawa
Kanazawa is a major provincial town in Ishikawa province on the north coast of Honshu some 2½ hours by the Thunderbird express train. On arriving we walked through the back streets to an old samurai district to visit one of the few remaining Buke Yashiki style residences of the Nomura family. The Nomura’s [...]
The Momiji Diaries – Part 10 – Kiso Valley
16th November, Kiso Valley
On a damp, mid November Sunday we travelled by train to Nakatsugawa via Nagoya and onward by local bus to Magome to experience travelling the old Nakasendo road between Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo). The old town of Magome is a ribbon development around the Nakasendo road which travels up a steep hill [...]
The Momiji Diaries – Part 9 – Okayama, Okayama-jo
15th November, Matsue to Kyoto via Okayama
We took the local express train to Okayama on the south side of the island and the tramway to Okayama-jo, the crow castle. Another of the castles built around 1600 and partially rebuilt in modern times after war time air raids. The building is complex with three different buildings, [...]
The Momiji Diaries – Part 8 – Matsue, Adachi Museum
14th November, Matsue, Shimane Province
We caught an early train to nearby Yasugi and picked up the minibus to the Adachi Museum. This was the main reason for the visit to Matue. The Adachi Museum of Art founded in recent times by Adachi Zenko is a masterpiece of paintings and ceramics on the inside and garden [...]
The Momiji Diaries – Part 7 – Matsue, Yuushi-en
13th November, Matsue, Shimane Province
After exploring Matsue (the water city), known for it’s rivers and canals, the night before, we took an early morning bus to Daikon-shima island to see the garden of Yuushi-en. Daikon-shima is an ancient collapsed caldera with rich soils, renowned for it’s ginseng and peonies. Here they grow many varieties, some [...]
The Momiji Diaries – Part 6 – Himeji, White Egret castle
12th November, Kyoto to Matsue via Himeji
We took an early Shinkansen (bullet train) to Himeji and walked to the castle about 20 minutes from the station. The White Egret castle is one of the finest of the 12 remaining castles in Japan, built in the early 1600’s after the battle of Sekigahara , which brought [...]
The Momiji Diaries – Part 5 – Kyoto, Hogon-in
11th November, Visit to Arashiyama district North West Kyoto
We caught the local train to Saga Arashiyama by the river Hozu, just after it emerges from the Hozu gorge. Our first visit was to the Hogon-in temple a sub temple of Tenryu-ji. Hogon-in has a pleasant stroll garden with many grumpy looking statues of monks by the [...]
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