One Day at Kanazawa: Kenrokuen Garden
The plan for the next morning is actually to enjoy beautiful cherry blossom view at Kenrokuen Garden. However it seems that the cherry blossom has not bloomed yet at Kanazawa. We could see a glimpse of pinkish hue on the sakura trees but unfortunately we were too early. While we were waiting for the tour guide to settle our ticketing to go inside Kenrokuen Garden, we were playing around with some selfie at the entrance to Kanazawa Castle. The castle was just located right at the opposite direction of the garden.
Being kinda mischievous, my brother and I got separated from the tour group because we wanted to see how the castle looks like since our itinerary did not include a trip to see the inside of the castle. The castle looks huge from the outside and it has its view of its former glory. Story told, there are no more treasures left inside the castle since the government has removed it somewhere else. Some artifacts and valuables are left inside the castle for tourism and education purpose but the tour guide mentioned that it’s not really worth a visit unless we are castle junkie.
Kenkokuen Garden, however, is the highlight of the town of Kanazawa. The garden is listed as one of the three most beautiful Japanese landscape gardens. Admission fee for adult is 310 JPY while young people from 6 to 18 costs 100 JPY. For people below 6 and older than 65, entrance is free but you need to show the ID to the ticketing staff.
The beautiful garden’s name, Kenrokuen, literally means “garden combining six” i.e. six attributes that all gardens should have like seclusion, antiquity, spaciousness, human ingenuity, water and scenic views. I am very convinced that the view of the sakura trees in Kenrokuen Garden would be very very breathtaking but I guess we have to come here another time to catch it. A very fickle flowers, this sakura.
For now, we are pretty satisfied to be able to enjoy the beautiful lake view of the lake with tea house in the middle of it, surrounded by the greeneries. Don’t forget the bonsai trees. Oh wow, they are huge. I have this imagination of retired life, taking care of cute pots of bonsai plants. Hmm, can bonsai live somewhere else other than Japan?