Day 13 - To Hiroshima via Okayama

This evening we fetched up in Hiroshima, but not without a brief stopover in Okayama to stroll through Koraku-en, "one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan." Completed in 1700 on the instruction on feudal lord Ikeda Tsunamasa it was passed to the Okayama Prefecture in 1884.
Our journey from Osaka was on the speedy Shinkansen...

And from the hustle-bustle, into the relative tranquility of a beautiful Japanese garden, with all that thought that goes into views and telling a story through the placement of stones and water and sculpted trees...

This was such a different experience to Kenroku-en in Kanazawa which was much busier, not just with people, but with trees...almost no open space except above the water. Here in Koraku-en by contrast, much of the central are is taken up by an expanse of (I'll call it) lawn, which evokes rolling countryside leading to lakes, mountains and trees in the distance...

Ignore the white lanterns. They were preparing for a festival or celebration. 

And then such lovely details...

And now I can't quite believe that I'm in Hiroshima, an almost legendary place that has such a terrible story to tell, and yet one of the first things that comes to mind is the song 'Enola Gay' by O.M.D. Tomorrow we will visit 'Peace Memorial Park' and the museum, and I think it's pretty certain that a grown man will cry.

Comments

  1. Jeff Scott14 August 2025 at 05:54

    Don't miss the "Mother and Child against the Storm" statue at the end of the park. Holding a four month old Julia in my arms - I'll never forget it. Mind you, the pedestrian crossing signal outside the park
    then started playing "Coming through the Rye" which allowed me to recover somewhat !

    ReplyDelete

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