Visitors come to Kanazawa primarily to visit this famous garden, Kenrokuen, regarded as the most beautiful landscaped garden in Japan. Well, personally I find the Samurai suburb more intriguing (and maybe the Geisha area too, if I just had the time), but since this "Mother of all Japanese Gardens" was only 10 min away by foot from my hotel, why not? Needless to say, I was not disappointed, though it must have been extremely pretty during cherry blossom (that moving window of 5 days some time in late March and early April) and in autumn colours. Kenrokuen was developed over 2 centuries as a private garden to Kanazawa Castle, the local chief's home, before it was opened to the public 1871.
I had planned to leave Kanazawa on a late morning train for Nagano (site of Winter Olympics 1998) en route back to Tokyo via the Alps, so I was anxious for an early start to the day. I arrived at the Kenrokuen's gate a tad before it opened 7.00am, so early that gardeners were still watering the plants and the centuries-old trees with huge hoses. Took 90 minutes to cover the garden, had a quick peek at Kanazawa Castle's 18th century gate and off I went for breakfast at McD's in downtown Kanazawa. By 10.15am, 11/8/04, I was at the Kanazawa train station waiting for an express train to take me, as it hugged the scenic Sea of Japan coastline, to Naoetsu, where I changed to a local train for the uphill climb to Nagano. Of the 12 express trains I took during my 8-day stay in Japan, only this Kanazawa-Naoetsu train was delayed - a whopping 10 minutes! Luckily the driver did not commit hara-kiri :-).
