Japan.It's Bloomin marvellous.

[drron]

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[drron]

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[OATEK]

Even without the peonies I enjoyed this garden.

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Ahh the serenity - it seems to me that this is a place where you would want to sit for hours in quiet contemplation. Do you find moving from place to place on a tour diminishes that peacefulness, or does it still have the expected impact?

 

[love_the_life]

A virtual plethora (in the nicest sense) of peonies.

 

[drron]

Certainly these gardens would have been much better appreciated doing it independently but going on this cruis got us to places it would be a little difficult to organise.As well we usually lost the group for periods as we always knew when the bus was to leave.We were never the last back on the bus-the other frustrating thing about group tours.I am not sure why but I liked this garden more than some of the more famous ones we visited.
Back to the pictorial-

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Now it was back through the shop.Mrsdrron found a couple of small purchases and I found lots of samples of Japanese food to enjoy.Then across the road and through the nursery.Wonderful plants and I found the orchids-another of my favourite flowers.Always impressed with the perfection the Japanese strive for.Rarely a blemish on the plants-

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[drron]

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This plant was a long way from home-

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So now back on the bus.Herbaceous peonies-

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[drron]

Now ginseng-

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Back at the dock there were some little folks to farewell us.

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The men performed first-

[video=youtube_share;L7EAnRsdhxs]https://youtu.be/L7EAnRsdhxs[/video]

 

[drron]

Now the first performance by the children-
[video=youtube_share;rI1uz6acBd8]https://youtu.be/rI1uz6acBd8[/video]

 

[drron]

Now the combined farewell.Note the strength of the wind.Plus apologies for the fickle finger of faint in top left-

[video=youtube_share;dwkQlyjBexI]https://youtu.be/dwkQlyjBexI[/video]

 

[ellen10]

How did I miss this trip report.
Signed on to catchup.

I love your trip reports Drron.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Have you noticed how the statues of the Colonel in Japan are very Japanese looking?

I remember being in Vietnam and seeing a statue of the Colonel; at first I thought it was a statue of Ho Chi Minh

 

[drron]

The Japanese certainly do put a Japanese accent to many things familiar to us here.I find it delightful.
We are now leaving Sakaiminato.Mt Daisen finally makes an appearance-

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As we move into the Sea of Japan the sun is starting to set so you know what that means.

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[drron]

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[drron]

An amazing sun-

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[drron]

Finally uploaded my videos so here are the 2 of the Shodo performances at Takamatsu-

[video=youtube_share;MC2t28K7HVI]https://youtu.be/MC2t28K7HVI[/video]

 

[drron]

The champions certainly put on the more polished performance-

[video=youtube_share;O7un3p5Xx4o]https://youtu.be/O7un3p5Xx4o[/video]

 

[drron]

Tuesday and we arrive in Kanazawa.Once again the local tourist office out to welcome us.Today in traditional dress-

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With our Cruise Director Yanni.We got along very well.So our first visit today was a gold leaf factory where we made postcards.Much more enjoyable than I thought.We made postcards,had some edible gold and of course a gold icecream.

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[drron]

An interesting water feature-

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Kanazawa was not bombed during the war so a lot more older buildings but not necessarily impressive.Some of the local area and shots from the bus on the way to an Entertainment area.

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Might try out some ars dancing-

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Typical Japanese scene.Bus driver cleaning his bus.Attention to detail.

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And we are here-

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[junbugging]

From a recent trip to Kanazawa, one of my favourite places on earth. Kenrokuen on the most crowded day of the year (when it's actually free to get in as a queue mitigation measure):



The rail station is way different from when I was there:



The area around the castle is as beautiful as when I first saw it:

 

[karen blancfield]

From a recent trip to Kanazawa, one of my favourite places on earth. Kenrokuen on the most crowded day of the year (when it's actually free to get in as a queue mitigation measure):

View attachment 69998

The rail station is way different from when I was there:

View attachment 69999

The area around the castle is as beautiful as when I first saw it:

View attachment 70000

One of of your favourite places on earth .... Would love to hear more. I can't resist a statement like that. I need to learn more about it. Thanks