Shaky start to the day with Philip a little under the weather - probably the after effects of too many beef croquettes for dinner last night! He dosed up on lomotil and stemotil and we headed off to the station for an 8.11am Thunderbird Express to Kanazawa. Suffice to say that he survived the day without any mishaps and didn't need to use the toilets on the 2hr 10 minute train journey either way.
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| Farmland along the way |
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| Large statue on a hill near one of the Onsen towns outside Kanazawa |
He was however quite taken by the toilet in the disabled cubicle that he used at Kanazawa station. The toilet style was western and included both one for an adult and also a tiny one for disabled children!
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| Mini disabled toilet! |
Checked in at the Tourist Information Centre at Kanazawa station regarding buses to the Kenrokuen Gardens and the helpful lady was a little shocked when we indicated that we believed that there was a JR bus that we could use. Ah but the driver does not speak English and the stops are announced in Japanese! We indicated that we did not see this as an issue as it would be costing us nothing to use the service so she informed us where to catch the bus and gave us a timetable with the stops shown in Japanese and English. Easy peasy. Hopped off across the road from the gardens
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| Scene right beside bus stop and below Kanazawa Castle Wall |
and made our way up to the entrance, parted with some more of our preciousYen and began a saunter through these beautiful traditional style gardens alternately using our umbrellas to shield us from sun and showers. Humidity still high but not so bad as the past few days.
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| Some real autumn colours appearing |
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| The care that is taken with supporting the tree branches! |
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| View down from a hill in the gardens |
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| Leave sweepers |
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| View across the lake in Kenrokuen, with a mere hint of autumn. |
Walked across the road to Kanazawa Castle
before catching the JR bus back to the station and organised tickets for an earlier return train to Kyoto and then decided that we would like to have our first latte since arriving in Japan so lunched at the German Bakery Cafe in the station on coffee (not made by a barista - just a push button machine!), twisted sugar donut and flat parmesan bread.
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| Lots to choose from at the German Bakery |
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Lunch at normal time unlike "linner" yesterday!
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| More Halloween trappings at Kanazawa Station |
Back on the Thunderbird Express for the trip home but not before Alison captured a photo of some maiko/geisha on a sign because we may not make the trip to see the real thing in the Gion in Kyoto because of the weather.
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| Not the real thing! But a really close second! |
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| Thunderbirds are GO! |
Now back in Kyoto and the clouds are back but there at least was a cooler breeze blowing as we walked from the station to our hotel. Alison has gone non-Japanese and eaten a Tuna Subway for dinner!
I love the use of water in the gardens...and those trains look fantastic!!! Just imagine going to Sydney or Melbourne on one of those!!!! I hope you enjoyed your coffee!!! I hope you do get to go to the Gion...I went Japanese yesterday and had sushi for lunch - and a rice paper roll....new place opened at Crestwood...delicious!!!
ReplyDeleteHope your sushi was good. I had sushi for dinner and this morning we are going to lash out and try the Japanese buffet breakfast at our hotel!!
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