兼六園

This past weekend I went to Nanao with two of my JET friends so we could go see the fall light up of the famous Kenrokuen garden, one of the "Three Great Gardens of Japan." We went early so we would have to time for some shopping first! One of our stops was Second Street, which is a thrift shop or ``jumble store.`` Walking through this secondhand store was like being in a regular store! All of the items were like brand new, you would never know they were previously used. 

When darkness fell we headed to Kenrokuen. Kenrokuen garden is a huge park that was built by the lord of Kanazawa castle. Kenrokuen means "Six Attributes Garden, so named because it features the six attributes of a perfect landscape: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, waterways, and panoramas. The garden was designed to look beautiful in every season, featuring plum blossoms, cherry blossoms in the Spring; azaleas and irises in the Summer; beautiful orange, red, and yellow maple leaves in the Fall; and in Winter you can see yukitsuri. Yukitsuri is a method of protecting the trees from winter snowfall, a bamboo pole is stood up in through the middle of the tree, and then ropes are tied from it to each branch of the tree. This way the branches do not break when the snow builds up on them.

Our first stop when we arrived at Kenrokuen was to buy some gold flake ice cream. Yes, we ate ice cream that was literally sprinkled with gold flakes! The city of Kanazawa is famous for its gold, Kanazawa literally means "Gold Swamp," and you can find many gold products here. Ice cream and tea being a couple of the most popular treats to try. So feeling like kings enjoying our snack of ice cream and gold we headed into the garden.

Kenrokuen is a beautiful garden filled with creeks and ponds and stone lanterns. Although my friends and I fully expected to see the trees decorated with Christmas lights and did not find that to be the case, it was absolutely gorgeous with the underlit maple trees. I cannot wait to go back and see what it looks like in the daytime!

This stone lantern is commonly taken to be a symbol for the garden, it is special because it is an original piece from when the garden was built, a project that ranged from the 1620s-1840s.

The ponds gave beautiful perfect reflections of the lit up maple trees

Here you can see yukitsuri!

The sign in front of this large old tree noted the roots which "lifted themselves out of the ground due to its being planted on an incline," but I broke the magical imagery of this false statement (to my friend's dismay!) when I pointed out that in actuality that's just erosion, folks! However, still a beautiful and impressive tree.