Hello!
We’ve just had a really excellent three days with our friend Yuri who visited us in February for our epic Tasmanian hike. It was so good to see her again! And she took us to some super places.
Our first stop was back up into the country on the little railway line to a superb garden. Hakuryuen Garden. (Meaning White Dragon)
Its not open all the time… Just in spring and autumn. They also limit amount of guests allowed in at one time. So it’s very peaceful (note… It’s a good idea to book to be safe esp if you want to visit in a busy season)
Yuri, as you might remember, is an expert on moss gardens and publishes books, does garden tours and is a garden designer! She shared so much interesting information!!
(information taken from pamphlet)
In 1962, Shoichi Aono, acquired the land…in the country of Ninose on the way to Kurama…and knew of the areas sacred histories and legends. He decided to restore the sacred sites, revive the land and create the gardens into the mountainside. It has been kept in the Aono family and still evolving today.
And by lucky chance… We met the son of the gardens creator who now owns the garden!!
The founder took the initiative to create Haku Ryu En, clearing the trackless land… A place where heavy machinery wasn’t available and carrying stones by hand, constructing the elements step by step. His family members, employees and even locals helped.
Its a lovely place to walk around. It was also cooler in the more mountainous area.
I loved the moss and wavy path set through it.
Yuri was on hand to tell us about the different mosses
There were small features and large all around.
We chatted to the head gardener… Nice man. I have photos of him on my other camera. Apparently the most annoying daily task is to clean up all the deer poo before visitors arrive!!
We love the stone basins and bamboo pipes
This place is going to be extra spectacular in a few weeks when the leaves get around to changing.
People also book this special place for wedding photos.
You can imagine a photographer getting creative with this space!
(Jeff’s very cool photo)
Anyway …. After getting our fill of this magnificent place, we grabbed a taxi and went down to Daitokuji where Yuri had booked us in to a special lunch… A zen Buddha vegetarian lunch.
It. Was. Amazing
Several dishes in the set menu kept coming out and each one was like a little work of art. They started with green tea and a sweet! Then moved on to the above dishes…
I just can’t tell you what each thing was. Yuri was explaining things along the way…
Above was one of Rachel’s dishes… She chose a slightly larger set menu. Being a vegetarian she made the good choice to go a bit bigger, knowing all the food was suitable. So pretty!
So delicate with the tiny flower garnish
I felt guilty eating and ruining that pretty leaf!
Even a small dish of tempura! Followed up with a really especially tasty rice and a mushroom soup!
We were all so rapt with this exciting lunch!
We then went to a couple of the temples in Daitokuji. Most pics are on the big camera, but you can see the amazing raked garden. The whole area was peaceful and we took time to sit and exchange some presents
Again, this area isn’t on the super intense tourist route, so it’s not a bad place to seek out as everything was amazing and not overcrowded.
The last place we went to was in the same complex… But more special and sacred. Lots of small tea houses tucked in a garden area… I need to find the pamphlet to describe it better. No photos were allowed.
at each shrine or temple, Jeff has been getting the monks to sign his special book. You pay a fee and they do some fab calligraphy along with the temple stamp. This one the head monk did for Jeff… But for free!! It was great watching him write it.
Jeff will have a wonderful collection by the time we are done!!
And to finish our day we went off to a little coffee shop where the owner by chance happened to go to kindergarten with Yuri! We enjoyed drinks and cake… And I collected another cute slight mistranslation…. I am just so caught up on the idea of a Hum Sandwich!!
xx
