Kanazawa's Kenroku-en, and Kyoto's Kinkakuji
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Kenrokuen (Six Attributes Garden, Kiêm Lục Viên)
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Today we left Kyoto for a day trip to the city of Kanazawa, located on the shore of the Sea of Japan, a 2-hour express train ride to the north east of Kyoto, site of the famous Kenroku garden.
What are the 6 attributes?
One of the top 3 gardens in Japan, Kenroku garden includes all 6 aspects required for a perfect garden according to a Chinese theory: spaciousness (廣大, Quảng Đại), seclusion (幽邃, U Thúy), human strength (人力, Nhân Lực), antiquity (蒼古, Thương Cổ - rêu phong), water stream (水泉, Thủy Tuyền - Suối), and panorama (眺望, Thiếu Vọng - Ngắm xa).
Up at 5am, we were out of the room by 6 am to catch the first bus to Kyoto station. We rushed into the schedule of the day when, while waiting for the pedestrian light to cross to the other side of Higashioji street, we saw an approaching bus #206. My wife asked if that's our bus, and I said yes. Without another word, she dashed across the 4-lane street and I had no choice but followed along. We scrambled onto the bus and had a good laugh. Now thinking back, that's a recurring theme of the day.
Arriving at the station 6:15 am, way early for the express Thunderbird #1 7:38 AM, we took the time to explore the grand Kyoto station. Then we went into Hotel Granvia lobby on top of the station to stay warm as I had started to have a sore throat. At 7am the coffee shops downstairs opened and we got our hot coffee. It's time to get in line for the train, and here was when we got into trouble.
A smoky start
Carelessly we stood in a line for a smoking car, and we realized that mistake only after boarding the train. I went looking for a non-smoking one, but this train only had 2 non-smoking cars with the smoking car sandwiched in between. No luck, it was a crowded train and there were already people running up and down the aisle hopelessly trying to find a seat. I saw people standing in the gangway between cars. My intention of hunkering down in our seats in the smoking car quickly went up in smoke as one man after another woman lit up, filling the car with smoke. We ran out to the gangway and joined another man there. To our relief, at the next train stop at Tsuruga 30 minutes later we found seats in the non-smoking car.
This experience was invaluable, and it was divine intervention to warn us to change our smoking seat reservation on the upcoming Saturday shinkansen trip back to Tokyo. Earlier that morning we could have paid more attention to the signs, or could have got in line early (I was having a throat irritation and didn't want to stand on the breezy platform), or made a right turn into a non-smoking car. None of that happened.
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Directions
At Kanazawa station we checked in at the Tourist Information Center for direction to the garden. The lady there spoke good English and provided us with a map of attractions and how to use the local bus system. Since this was a day trip, she said there would not be time for other tours, so just took the bus directly to the garden. It's also suggested that we might consider a combination ticket for both the garden and the Castle.
Using the bus here was slightly different than Kyoto in that we needed to take a ticket from the dispenser when we boarded the bus. The fare was ¥200 each way. Any bus departing from Bay #4 would be fine, and our stop was Kenrokuen-shita on Kenrokuzaka street.
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Exploring Kenroku garden
There were several entrances to the garden. We took the Katsurazaka gate after walking up the Konyazaka slope. The main attraction was right close by: the 2-legged Kotoji-toro (stone lantern) by the Kasumiga-ike (霞ヶ池 pond).
Going clockwise, next came the massive pine tree Karasaki-no-matsu (唐崎松, the pine tree from Karasaki) whose lengthy branches were propped up by numerous posts. Looking across the pond you could see Uchihashitei teahouse (内桥亭).
In the middle of the pond was Hōrai island (Hōraijima, 蓬莱島, Bồng Lai Đảo, Paradise Island). According to Chinese legend, somewhere in the East ocean there was an island called 蓬莱島where immortals lived. Thus a representation of such an island in a garden setting requires that it has no manmade structure and no bridge connecting to it. This element can be found in other Chinese and Japanese gardens as well. This particular island also looks like a turtle if you stand at the right angle, with its head here.
The element of Panorama: At this viewpoint (眺望台) you could enjoy a panoramic view of the town below. Keep walking along and we reached the Hill of the Seven Fortune Gods (七福神山).
Following the stream a bit further there was another smaller but also impressive dual-trunk pine. There were several bridges crossing the stream but the most intersting one was the Ganko-bashi (雁行桥, Flying Wild Geese bridge) which mimic the flying formation of a flock of migrating wild geese. We were impressed with the level of house-keeping here as well as elsewhere, no doubt with the support of tourist entrance fees. There were workers sweeping the gravel paths, and gardeners tending to the health of the valuable pines. This gardener was using a twig hand broom to clean one of the tree trunks.
Crossing one of these bridges brought us to Meijikinen memorial (明治紀念之標) honoring Prince Yamato Takeru who was a folk legend. Next to this monument was another impressive pine.
Going south from this point towards the stream again there was another small island called Sekireijima (鶺鴒島, Wagtail Island, Tích Linh Đảo, Đảo Chim Ch́a Vôi). The name of the island came from the ancient story that the god Izanami and goddess Izanagi learned how to make love from the wagtail birds. The sign on the torii gate reads Sanja (三社) which refers to a human life's 3 big ceremonious events: birth, marriage, and death. Each event is represented by a symbolic object on this island: a yinyang rock is birth (not visible in this picture), a double pine (aioi, 相生) is marriage, and a 5-storied stone lantern is death.
The element of Seclusion: Meandering to the East corner of the garden we saw the secluded small hill Yamazaki yama (山崎山) with a gazebo on top that you could rest.
Close by there was a very picturesque zig-zag path dotted with lamps and lanterns. This path led to the Dragon Stone (Ryuseki, 竜石, Long Thạch) that resembled a dragon's head.
On the West corner was the Shiguretei teahouse (时雨亭). From there we looped back down to the side of Kasumiga pond which provided another great view of the Karasaki pine.
The element of Antiquity: along the pond are great old trees covered at the base with vast moss lawns.
Finally at the same gate that we entered, looking over to the other side was the Ishikawamon (Ishikawa gate) that we didn't have time to explore.
The Human element: walking through the vast garden, we spotted workers cleaning the gravel paths and taking care of the trees. Also scattered in the gardens are the many toro lanterns, such as these pictured below.
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Run for the train
After buying a deck of postcards and a box of sesami-coated sweets, it's already past noon, time to head back. When we asked for direction to the garden I forgot to ask for the direction back to the station. Back at the entrance, we realized there were 5 bus stops around this intersection, and we didn't know which one would be the right one. It became a very funny situation. First we asked a local lady who wasn't sure which bus would be right, then we talked to a middle-aged man who surprised us by speaking rather fluent English. He directed us back to the big bus stop at the bottom of the slope, where we should wait for a bus that bound for "Kanazawa-eki-mae". We then waited there, and when a bus stopped by I asked the driver if this was the right place to wait. As circumstances would have it, an old lady getting off that bus kept trying to say things to us, and each time the driver would yell at her to shut up and to just get off. Then he told us to wait here. After getting off, the old lady still tried to talk to us, waving her hand at another bus stop around the corner. Fortunately a middle-aged lady who just walked to the bus stop heard of our conversation and intervened, assuring us that this was the one, that the other bus stop would be OK too but that the bus would eventually stop here. Finally the old lady clamed up, smiled and agreed with the other lady, and the confusion ended there. The middle-aged lady signaled us inside the bus house and pointed at an electronic board that was hung high and kind of obscured and thus we didn't notice before. There everything became clear to me. When the bus arrived, we looked at the clock and told ourselves "we're not gonna make it to our train" which was scheduled to leave at 12:53.
But as fate would have it, the bus arrived at the station 5 minutes prior to departure. We picked up and just ran! No time to check the board, I just showed my reserved ticket to a worker and he told us platform 2. Reaching the train, we just jumped on the first car we saw, which was unreserved car #3. We then ran through car after car to get to car #8, but at the last unreserved car#7, there was no door to get to the next car! In the confusion, my wife noticed a train conductor standing outside the train waving at us. We got off the train and he told us that the reserved section was separated from the unreserved one! Finally we found our seats at row 18, dropped our tired bodies down, and had a good laugh! 2 minutes later, the train started moving! Phew!
This day had been strange right from the morning, but both times we managed to get through, so that left us with quite a warm fuzzy feeling inside! And a lot of unexpected interactions with the local people too.
Now able to relax and enjoy the scenery along the 2+ hour ride, we saw a big golden Kannon statue which we didn't know about its history. The train then pulled along lake Biwa for a while before arriving at Kyoto on time at 3:09 pm.
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Kinkakuji (金閣寺, Golden Pavilion Temple, Kim Các Tự)
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From Kyoto station we took bus #12 to the North West where Kinkakuji was. Wow it was a long ride, taking us an hour to get there because it's a local bus and made way too many stops! We should've taken the express bus #101 which could've saved us 10 minutes, but oh well.
The long ride was expected because the station was in the South so pretty much you had to go from one end of Kyoto to the other. Had not been to Kinkakuji before, for a moment I thought of returning the next day (we were there a bit past 4 pm and the door closed at 5 pm), however gladly thanks to my wife that thought was crushed immediately.
Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺, Deer Garden Temple, Lộc Uyển Tự), as properly called, was a must-see for anyone on their maiden trip to Kyoto. The temple was built with its back against the hills of Kinugasa and Hidari-daimonji in the Okitayama area.
The main attraction is the Shariden (Relic Hall), a gold-leaf gilded building (a much thicker gilding was applied in 1987, and the roof was restored in 2003). On top of the roof is a Chinese phoenix. The mirror pond is called Kyoko-chi (鏡湖池) and contains many small islands, the one on the left in the picture is Ashihara (葦原島, Reed Field island). This building and the pond were designed to evoke the image of the Seven Treasure Pond found in Buddhist Paradise scenes.
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Besides the main attraction, other interesting objects include:
- A large boat-shaped stone at the right of the path leading from the entrance,
- and an old white pine Rikushu-no-matsu (陸舟の松, Lục Chu Tùng) around the Hōjō building (方丈, Phương Trượng, Abbot's chamber). The tree was shaped like a boat, thus its name Land Boat. It's located right next to a karesansui garden, so from the view in the picture it's as if the boat was lying on an ocean beach. A white pine, or goyomatsu (pinus pentaphylla), has an elegant figure, thick trunk with very leafy branches. Goyo means 5 needles in a bundle.
It got dark quite quick so we didn't venture up the hill to view the Anmin pond, or stopped by the Sekkatei tea house. We left by closing time and took the bus back to Gion. That night my wife went shopping while I tried to sleep off my cold.
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