Sakaiminato, Japan

Friday April, 18, 2019                 Sakaiminato, Japan

                                                             First views of Sakaiminato

The Westerdam arrived at Sakaiminato at 10:00am.  It was a cold, blustery day so we hustled to the shuttle bus into town about a 20 minute drive. 

We immediately saw the Yokai, beautiful bronze statues of supernatural characters as imagined by famed manga comic author, Shigeru Mizuki. They lined the streets.  Mizuki was born in the area so they really honored him with the numerous statues and paintings of his characters.

We boarded a second shuttle to Daikonshima Island to see the famed Yuushien Garden. 

                                                              Entrance into Yuushien Gardens

Here we were able to see the infamous peonies in a Japanese Garden. They were in bloom and the smell reminded me of my grandmother’s flower garden…nature’s perfume.

 The garden is said to have 250 varieties of peonies both indoor and outdoor displays. The green moss that grew along the ground provided a soft carpeted background for all the floral blooms of crape myrtle, rhododendron, hydrangea, azaleas, camellia, cherry trees, water lilies, dogwood, and apricot trees.  

                                       Wedding pictures were being captured here today.

We enjoyed several koi ponds, the meandering streams and the waterfalls. It was a masterpiece of a garden.

                                     They are so perfectly shaped that they don't look real....but they are.

Our traveling friends Mark and Julie

We crossed an incredibly steep bridge on the way to and from the garden. It was built so that ships can pass under it….the third steepest bridge in the world, it felt like we were going to drop off the very top as we hit the summit. 

                                   This long shot of it really shows the steepness....Wheeeeee!

                                                           Farewell to Sakaiminato

We returned to the ship in the early afternoon….getting ready for a full day of exploration in Kanazawa known as “Little Kyoto”.