Our next port of Sakaiminato is a small city of only about 32,000 inhabitants, but there is a lot to see and do in the area, as we found out on our all-day tour.
Our first stop on the tour was at the Adachi Museum of Art. This museum was established by Adachi Zenko, a native of the area, who became a businessman and art collector, especially of the works of Japanese artist Yokoyama Taikan. He was also a passionate garden designer, and when he decided to establish a museum to exhibit his collection, he created six gardens totaling 165,000 square metres in size to surround the galleries. We had about an hour here to see the paintings from Taikan and various modern Japanese artists, and also marvel at the gardens. These gardens are ranked #1 in Japan, and that's saying something, but you can understand why when you see them.
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| Adachi also purchased the hills behind so he could curate the backdrop for this garden. |
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| A poster showing the garden in all 4 seasons |
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| A statue of Adachi who lived to age 91 |
After that visit, we went to see Matsue Castle. Matsue is one of the three great lakeside castles in Japan. It was built in 1607-1611 by the feudal lord of Matsue in the early Edo Period. That's when the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled Japan. The story as told by our guide is that at some point the castle burned down and the lord requested to be able to rebuild. The Shogunate denied him, not wanting anyone below them to have a castle. After a number of years, the lord asked to have a watchtower built on the site instead, to protect the area from attack from the sea. This was granted, so the lord rebuilt the castle with a few small changes to make it look more like a watchtower.
The tour includes entry into the castle and the opportunity to walk, in stocking feet as you have to remove your shoes, up into the five levels inside. The views are spectacular, but the staircases get steeper and the wooden treads narrower as you go up. Larry managed the second level and I went up one more.
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| The original decorations from the rooftop. You may recall this mythical creature shape from a sculpture at the Imperial Palace Gardens in Tokyo. It seems to grace all Edo Period palaces |
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| The view from the third level |
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| A statue of the first lord who built the castle |
That certainly was interesting! After leaving the castle, we could visit the Matsue Temple next door as well as the Jozan Inari-jinja Shrine.
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| Matsue Temple |
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| Jozan Inari-jinja Shrine, famous for its fox statues |
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| And you can never forget the appropriately decorated vending machines! |
Our next stop for the day was in another garden area. This time it was Daikonshima Island in Lake Nakaumi where Japan's famous peonies are grown. The island has been connected by a bridge for many years. This was done so that the workers in the peony fields would be able to commute to their families, rather than being away for their working week and unable to get back to the mainland.
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| A small island we passed in the lake on our way to Yuushien Garden. |
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| Some of the peony fields |
When we arrived at the garden, our first stop was the restaurant where lunch had been set up for us....after all, we were cruise passengers who hadn't eaten for at least 3 hours! It was a little scary to say the least, to see all of this stuff set out in front of us. But our guide and the wait staff were very helpful, and lunch was delicious!
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| The pots on the fire contained broth and vegetables. The bowl in front was our rice.... |
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| and there was a pretty lacquered box for everyone holding 3 more plates of small bites from pork to fish |
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| We had bowls of peony noodles - yes, they put crushed peony petals in the noodle dough - to add to the broth |
It was a bit of challenge to get the noodles out of the pot with chopsticks, but we managed in the end!
After lunch we had a brief tour with our guide and then were given 45 minutes to wander around on our own. One of the big draws of Yuushien at this time of year, especially during Golden Week, is the Peony Festival. During late April and early May the first blooms have to be cut off of the peony plants to encourage more robust growth. Rather than send them to the compost heap, they are brought to the garden and strewn on one of the large ponds. The effect is quite beautiful. We're glad we were here at the right time to see it!
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| It isn't just peonies on display; there are lots of roses here, too! |
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| The gardens are beautifully designed |
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| And there is a Peony House where new cultivars are displayed. There's a large shop near the parking lot for you to buy plants as well. |
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| The Peony Pool |
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| Garden employees are constantly adding more flowers to the display |
And some of his books. He seemed to have a real liking for weird creatures. He is accredited with turning Japanese folk creatures into modern pop culture, and influencing at least 2 generations of comic and animation creators.
And in the main foyer a rotating Kitaro giving his father, who died and was reincarnated as a sentient eyeball, a bath.
Once we had examined the exhibits in the museum, which were quite fascinating, we had an opportunity to stroll along Mizuki Shigeru Road, where bronze sculptures of over 1,000 of his characters have been set along the sidewalk. Who could resist taking photos of some of them?
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| Even the manhole covers in the road have Kitaro on them! |
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| This is his version of his parents |
We headed back to the bus and the ship after this, as it had already been a pretty full day. The local public washroom near the parking lot was decorated in the spirit as well:
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| Kitaro, his friend Neko-Musume or Cat-Girl, and his Eyeball father |
There was a fair crowd of people at the pier to see us off as we left, probably because they'd never seen Crystal Symphony before. It's been really nice to see the drummers and the bands and the people in many of the ports sending us off. We had noticed that so far we hadn't seen another cruise ship anywhere, even in Tokyo. The larger ships likely go to the port of Yokohama instead.
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