Himeji Castle 7 Koko-en 姫路城のここえん

In a flowing dream
The world keeps passing by
Pausing on a bridge



This will be my last planned posting on Himeji Castle. This is one of the largest of garden's I've been to in Japan. It reminded me a little of several Japanese Garden's in America.... Big. Many Japanese traditional style gardens are fairly small. This garden however seemed pretty large and took some time to walk through.

It is surrounded by white washed walls in the same style as Himeji Castle. It is comprised of nine gardens each of a separate theme. A well written post on the garden, it's history, including some nice photo's can be found at this link. (Which happens to be the official English link for the Garden.) If you follow the link back to "Home" you will find the Japanese home page with a nice slide-show of the grounds. It is a very beautiful place.

I visited the gardens with two Japanese friends of mine. While we were there we asked a Japanese woman if she would take our picture. (I asked using broken Japanese). I was astonished when she replied in English; "I'm not Japanese." In fact she didn't just say it.... she snapped at us! She then proceeded to lecture about how she was Korean and didn't speak Japanese at all.... To which I told my friends, (once again in bad Japanese) how rude and annoying our new acquaintance was!

I was quite surprised by her attitude. For one thing, in Japan you rarely encounter anyone who is out right confrontational. And second, how were we supposed to know anyway?.... Sheesh!

Apparently she had worn a little thin on people confusing her with a Japanese person.　But when it all comes down to it... She did take a nice photo of us!

Here is a link to a walking tour of the gardens. They were very pleasant to walk through. If you had a second day in Himeji and wanted an easy morning stroll I would suggest the gardens. Otherwise, you may look for a more historical location as a first choice. The gardens were built on the ruins of a Samurai housing area. They were completed in the early 1990's.

Enjoy!

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No throwing pebbles in my pool of zen.