kenroku-en
today i went to kenroku-en, a very famous japanese garden. the cherry blossoms are going crazy here, so the walk there was really beautiful.
the garden
this place deserves the reputation it has. its absolutely beautiful. and it being cherry blossom season really made it even better.
i am not sure why, but admission was free today. i came prepared to pay for entry, and then just didn’t have to. it was great.
kenroku-en is 25 acres, its pretty big. i took many more pictures than this, check the gallery for more.
per wikipedia, this place began construction in the 1600s, and “literally translates as "Combined" (Ken) "Six" (roku) "Garden" (en) to mean the "Garden of Six Attributes." Sadanobu drew inspiration from the classical Chinese text "Chronicles of the Famous Luoyang Gardens" (洛陽名園記), which outlined the six attributes of a perfect landscape: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, waterways, and panoramas. Attaining all six within one landscape was said to be difficult because they form contrasting pairs:
There are six features that make a garden outstanding. If one tries to introduce an impression of vastness, any atmosphere of quietude and intimacy will be lost; if artificial elements are introduced, any impression of antiquity will be weakened; if a lot of flowing water is introduced, distant views are not possible.”
little did the guy who named it know, you can just make the garden absolutely gigantic to get around these problems.
this is easily among the most beautiful places on the planet. and a lot of work goes into maintaining it. in a bunch of places, there were workers hunched over with tweezers agonizingly inspecting every square inch of these gardens to keep it perfect. it is really a sight to behold. im not sure if any of my photos really did it justice.
the quest for sushi
i had a dinner reservation at a popular sushi restaurant at 6:00 pm. but i didn’t know how long i would be at the garden, so i left much earlier than i thought. i got out of the garden and started heading towards the sushi restaurant. i got there at… 4pm. so i had 2 hours to kill walking around the area near this restaurant. it was absolutely freezing cold out.
only got a few good photos during this adventure.
finally it was time for the sushi restaurant. this place is also an inn, apparently. i started with some sake and an variety of sashimi.
next, i did something kinda silly. this place is apparently well known for a wagyu beef sushi roll covered in gold leaf.
it wasn’t sushi in the strictest sense, considering it contained no fish. but i felt like this was weird and i wanted to try it.
the gold leaf has absolutely no flavor or texture. it is so thin that it just dissolves into nothing the second it enters your mouth. this was a pointless meal, but it was unique and i wanted to try it. it was extremely delicious, but the gold leaf served no purpose besides the wild photo.
as mentioned before, there are many more photos in the gallery.
