Kenrokuen 2009

My first time to Kenrokuen was with Japan Tent in August 2005. It was in the summer, so the park was super duper greenish. This time of the year, usually the park is already covered with snow. But due to global warming, the weather warmed up over the past week and there was absolutely no snow at all. This is very strange for February. However, Kenrokuen is still able to maintain its beauty despite the ongoing weird weather condition.


Kenrokuen (Ishikawa Prefecture), along with Korakuen (Okayama Prefecture) and Kairakuen (Ibaraki Prefecture), is one of the three great gardens of Japan. I've been to Korakuen before, but I didn't like it much. And I haven't been to Kairakuen yet, so I don't know how it is. But so far, in my opinion, Kenrokuen outperforms Korakuen by a lot.

the famous landscape of Kenrokuen
Kenrokuen is named after a garden combining the six attributes of a perfect landscape garden: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, watercourses and panoramas which appears in Chinese poet. It was rebuilt in 1822 after the original garden burned down.

This Karasakinomatsu Pine is the best-known tree in the garden.

During winter, the tie the ropes up into a triangle shape to protect the trees from heavy snowfalls. Unfortunately, there was no snow when we went (T__T).

P'Nok mingling with the local.

Tea Houses

gardening

Flying Geese Bridge

N'Bee, P'Pum, Poy with the Lantern

The plum flowers started blooming already.

I love the smell of these white ones. So sweet!

Kanazawa's charm is not much different from that of Kyoto's.

p.s. our lunch:


Date: 2009.02.14
Members: P'Nok Ying, Poy and Bee from Nagano + P'Nok Chai, P'Y20h, P'Pum and I from Kansai area.