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A short drive up the coast takes me to Kainan City, home of Onzansou Gardens.
The gardens were built by a local businessman named Choujiro Nitta who on his death, bequeathed the gardens to the city. Very kind of him !
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The three essential ingredients of a traditional Japanese garden are rocks, water and trees. Sounds simple put like that, doesn't it?
Ah, but every rock, tree and pond has to be "just so", don't you know.
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In the middle of this particular lake is a kind of water wheel that spins around at a great rate of knots, thus churning up the water. Is it...
a) An ornament?
b) To scare the fish?
c) To make all the foreigners ask stupid questions?
No, I don't know either, though my missus thinks that it is to oxygenate the water. Being somewhat smarter than me she is prob'ly correct.
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| This fine building is, of course, the tea ceremony house ( OK Hands up everyone who thought it housed the public conveniences). The art of 'sado' or ceremonial tea making is alive and well in Japan. Aficionados of the art would consider themselves priviliged to practice their skills in an setting such as this. So there.
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The unfortunate part of all of this is that the photos simply don't do justice to the place. Sorry about that.
Thing to do of course is to go and see for yourself.
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