Naturally Nihon

It's not just in the UK that slightly inclement weather disrupts the railways. We woke this morning to a torrential downpour and decided to breakfast in the hotel to wait out the worst. It didn't really work. We got soggy feet wading back through Kenroku-en to a history museum on the other side. We experienced a moving exhibition about the Noto quake of 2024 . I don't think this hit the media in the UK, but it was obviously pretty harrowing for the local people with nearly 700 dead and over a thousand badly injured. I don't think I can properly understand the mindset of living with the enduring threat of this kind of calamity. The value of property ownership, at least, must be greatly diminished.  No photos from the museum, but back in Kenroku-en, this photo by Diana... Anyway, the Shinkansen (and other trains) are all disrupted today because of the rain, so instead of waiting for the one we've booked seats on, we've gone for a Hail Mary ...

Traditional Japanese breakfast!  And then off on the bullet train to Kanazawa which has a most impressive entrance. It's so humid here and the louring gray sky suggests that heavy rain may come crashing down at any minute. Ignoring that, we drop our bags at the hotel and head straight for the Kanazawa Castle grounds... ...and then Kenroku-en, one of the most famous gardens in Japan... Although I really loved Kenroku-en, there's a slight desolation to the reliance on just moss as underplanting. It's a style, that Zen simplicity, which is wonderful, but doesn't wrap its arms around you and hug you like an English cottage garden. Diana and I visited 'The Garden House' in Devon last year and were blown away. Perhaps it's wrong to compare, but I have, so deal with it! Oh, OK, but only because you begged...