It was a perfect day to be outdoors! Sunny, breezy, and temps in the high 60s. Finally!
We spent the morning sailing the inland sea between some of the hundreds of islands that make up the Japanese archipelago. The port at Takamatsu is impressive. Beautifully paved and landscaped, the local business community seemed to be out in full force to welcome the ship’s passengers and officers.
This is the area where bonsai began, and in the afternoon, we had an opportunity to visit a bonsai farm. Later, we spent some time at the serenely beautiful Ritsurin Garden.
We visited the Kagawa Bonsai Farm and met with the owner and his family. I had no real idea what went into these plants, and how rich a history they had. Dating back to the time of the samurai, bonsai was an important art, adapted from earlier Chinese culture. This region is dry and sunny and well-suited for their growth. Pines are the specialty here, although some flowering plants are also used. More than 40 years ago, young plants were dug up in the mountains, but the practice was banned by the government for impeding new forest growth.
We learned so much and had a very entertaining Q&A session with the pleasant 4th generation owner, whose son will take over the business, and become the 5th generation to run the enterprise.
It would take pages to explain all we learned, but I can report the process is painstaking. Each year they curb the size by pulling out first-growth new needles (one by one); some of the plants we saw cost thousands of dollars. They are gorgeous works of art, and 80% of the world’s bonsai trees come from this area.
The Ritsurin Garden was my favorite garden of the trip so far. It was less crowded than the more famous Kenrokuen Garden we visited in Kanazawa, but even if you took away those crowds, I’d still rank this one higher.
There were some wide-open spaces, several ponds, lots of water features, even a waterfall, and beautiful flowering trees. Yes, cherry trees, but also some beautiful Japanese magnolias, all set against a mountain backdrop. Dating from the 1620s, it was truly an island oasis in the middle of a modern city. I’ll let my pics tell the story.
When we returned to the ship, the city had a food truck giving out free servings of the regionally famous Udon Noodles (delicious). We got to see some talented young female performers do a very original dance/calligraphy performance. It sounds odd, but was lovely and interesting to watch. We even had a canon salute send-off from the local castle. We experienced warm welcomes and entertainment at most ports, but Takamatsu really outdid themselves.
Today was another dreary day – maybe just the type of setting to visit the somber Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, and Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Like a visit to the 9-11 Site in NYC, there is no way to really capture the suffering caused by these horrific events. The flame in the Park is kept burning, and will be extinguished when there are no more nuclear threats – unfortunately, I don’t believe in our lifetime.
The domed ruins have been left as a reminder of that tragic day. The actual target was the unusually shaped bridge nearby and the site of impact is on the other side of the park. The huge museum was jam-packed with visitors from all over the world. Not surprisingly, I found the most impactful part of the museum the stories of lives lost and forever changed. Captions will give a few examples. One tip, if you are with a group, you skip the long lines and come in through a separate entrance on the opposite side of the museum.
The city itself is completely rebuilt and modern; full of life today. Since I’ve been asked, I will say the Japanese people we have met have been totally welcoming to Americans. We are solid allies these days.
In the afternoon, light rain began as we boarded the 10-minute ferry to Miyajima Island. Considered a divine island, it is the home of the vermillion-lacquered Itsukushima Shrine and the iconic 50-foot-tall Otorii gate of the same color, which during high tide appears to be floating. We had light rain on and off as we walked around this 6th-century (first built in 593) UNESCO Site, but it didn’t interfere with what we wanted to see. I was surprised to learn the entire shrine had floating walkways and can also appear to be floating. Tides today were not high enough for that vision. But as the normal tide pulled back farther, people began to walk out to the massive 60-ton gate. The current (9th) wooden gate was built in 1875 and is considered one of Japan’s three most scenic views.
The hilly, wooded island also hosts other Shinto shrines and the 5-story Goju-no-to pagoda dating from 1407. Wild deer are protected and roam freely, and although tame, do aggressively approach visitors to try and eat anything, including paper. The area is also very commercial with an aquarium at one end and several pedestrian streets lined with cute shops, restaurants, and food stalls. We enjoyed a very tasty chocolate ice cream cone on our walk along the various paved and sandy paths back to the ferry.
Tonight, during dinner back on board the Azamara Journey, we watched the rain come down in torrents, thankful we had such a light rain in the afternoon. Tomorrow promises to be a better weather day. Fingers crossed.
Seeing Kokura Castle and Castle Park was at the top of my list in Kitakyushu.
It was finally a gorgeous, sunny day as we docked in Mojiko and took a short ride to the Castle Park. The park was small and the cherry trees late – so it was very disappointing. Seeing the castle, built in 1602 was interesting and had nice exhibits focused on Samuri culture and life in a castle town. Good news, we did not have to take off our shoes here and there was an elevator for those who needed one. The top floor, fifth, had a coffee shop – from the information in the brochure, on Saturday nights it becomes a “stylish bar” called Kokura Night Castle. Interesting.
Extra good news, there was a man performing a show with his monkey outside the castle entrance that was pretty interesting and unusual. There was also a woman walking her goat . . .
From the harbor area, we walked over to the Akama Jingu Shrine – one of the most dramatic I’ve seen. It’s dedicated to Emperor Antoku who died in the Battle of Dannoura in 1185, at age six.
The waterfront was scenic and had a nice promenade. It was nice to just hang out in the sunshine and fresh air.
I think I might have seen enough castles and shrines.
What a fun day we had in Busan, Korea!
We arranged a private guide through Tours by Locals and were picked up right on time at our ship. I had a couple of agendas for the day, but first, we saw a bit of Busan. We were impressed with this modern city, surrounded by hills and soaring blocks of apartment buildings. Our guide, Frank said it was Korea’s answer to San Francisco and that description fit the hilly streets.
About 20 years ago, we spent a few overnight hours in the Busan airport and were super impressed with its high-tech, modern ambiance. The city, home to about 3.5 million residents, paid off that initial impression being both attractive and colorful.
We started the day off with a visit to the Gamcheon Culture Village, a formerly poverty-stricken area with no power that was transformed into a veritable canvas for local artists, creating a vibrant neighborhood filled with shops and food vendors as well as homes.
If you have ever run into Korean groups while traveling, you know they love to take posed pics and this area is an extremely popular photo-op destination. Some spots even had lines of people waiting their turn to strike a pose. We saw young women in local costumes, a mural tribute to the two local members of KPop Super Stars BTS, and our first cat sighting this trip (surprising for countries so in love with cats).
We also learned to pose the Korean way – making a sign for love (vs the overused sign for peace).
The Jagalchi Fish Market was another famous local site we took in. The first floor was loaded with every sort of live fish and shellfish you can imagine. Upstairs on the second floor, you could purchase processed fish, but more significantly, you could dine in one of the dozens of small restaurants cooking up the fresh catches of the day. It smelled sooooo delicious.
One of my goals was to try an authentic Korean BBQ meal and Frank took us to one of his favorite places, unique to Busan. I could never get anyone to tell me how to translate the name, but I did take a business card in Korean if anyone needs to know.
Needless to say, the meal was incredible! Frank did all the tableside cooking, explained the side dishes, and showed us how to eat. We had several types of meat and pork dishes. There was a soft tofu soup that was absolutely delicious and the Ssamjang red bean paste was wonderful. It was unlike any Korean food I have ever eaten. My biggest problems were trying to manage the large bites of food Frank kept urging me to take and manipulating the squared-off metal chopsticks that were very tricky to grip.
Then we headed out of town to the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival. I found out about this online and was happy the weather was nice and we could go. Good news – we did see cherry blossoms! Although not in full bloom, the festival was in full force and the trees were lovely. We started at Gyeonghwa Station. If you’ve ever seen a pic of a train riding through arches of cherry blossoms, this is the place. These trees still had a way to go, so we moved on to the Yeojwacheon Stream. The trees were lovely in this area and the streets were packed with young people (and lots more posing for pics – but now, we were too). There were all sorts of shops and every type of food available, although I didn’t find any Diet Coke. Frank brought us some fish-shaped pastries with cream and red bean paste, a very tasty treat. The festival also had information booths for a wide variety of causes such as Korean unification and pet adoption. Attractive portable toilet trailers had also been brought in and staged up and down the area, so there was never a line. Beautiful and impressive.
The festival was more than an hour outside Busan and we drove on some impressive super highways to get there. I’ve already mentioned in my last post that I don’t like bridges and since I did that post there has been the horrible bridge accident in Maryland. But now, here we were riding on a double-decker bridge and also on the craziest full-circle elevated bridge access road I’ve ever seen. Time for my yoga breathing.
I liked the port bridge much better about 10 PM, when viewed from our stateroom, under an almost full moon, with electric lights the colors of the rainbow running across and up and down the span.
