Up this morning, ate the rice and pickles I bought at Tamade last night and checked out of Hotel Taiyo.
There
is a website I have used every trip called Hyperda that when you put in
the station you want to leave from, the destination station and the
time (for example Shinimamiya to kanazawa at 9am) it will give times,
train type, platform arriving and departing with various options as to
times.
This time I have put the Hyperda app on the iPhone and iPad with a free 30 day trial and as before it's invaluable.
So I caught a train at 9:16 at Shinimamiya and got off in Kanazawa at 12:17 with just the one change at Osaka Station.
Thank
the Gods for wifi and Google Maps. Not sure how I would have found the
Ryokan without them (wifi and GM that is). Probably would have had to
take a taxi. Not only that but it was about a 30 min walk (2.4km) and
all the way I am wondering why did I choose this place?
When I got here I realised that pretty much everywhere I want to go is within about a 10min walk...so swings and roundabouts.
On
the long walk I noticed a shrine with a very unusual entrance gate
which looked like it belonged on a church. I looked it up and found that
it was called Oyama Shrine and the gate originally was in front of
Kanazawa Castle. It was designed by a Dutch architect in 1589. After
settling in at the Ryokan Kikunoya I walked to the Shrine and had a look
around. The gate is an extraordinary amalgam of European (stained
glass) and Japanese (carved wood, etc) elements.
Turns out the whole shrine, not just the gate, was transplanted from the Castle grounds- including the garden.
I
have seen this before where the garden at Kodai-ji in Kyoto was moved
from Fushimi Castle after it was dismantled In 1623. It is a fascinating
story that many rooms and buildings from the castle were incorporated
into castles and temples all over Japan. The most bizarre thing was the
bloodstained floorboards of a corridor where a commander (Torii
Mototada) and his troops committed suicide were included in the ceilings
of a number of Kyoto temples.
Across the street from the
shrine I noticed a temporary fence and the sound of machinery Wandered
over and could see through the end of it people digging and sifting
through rubble. A lady approached and told me they worked for the
Ishikawa Prefectures as archeologists assigned to investigating the
Castle grounds. Turns out this particular location once had a gate and a
bridge that linked to the Shrine and there is talk of them being
rebuilt some time in the future.
Walked back to the Ryokan, stopping off at Lawsons for food and drink for dinner, ate, bathed and now off to the cot.
Tomorrow will visit Kenrokuen Gardens, the Kanazawa Castle Park (next door to one another) and see what else I can fit in.
Lotsalove,
Tim
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