A Japanese cherry blossom cruise.

[drron29]

We now set off for our next stop Tumuli park.The traffic was horrendous.Not only was it the cherry blossom festival and marathon but also a national holiday plus an election in 3 days time.However there was something else unforeseen.It was Canola Flower festival time as well-

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This young woman is reviewing the selfie taken as they came to a quick stop-

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On the way we passed the oldest astronomical observatory in the world built in the 700s before seeing our first mound-

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And then we arrived at Tumuli with it's collection of burial mounds from the Silla dynasty-

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One of the tombs is open.One of the reasons these tombs are important is there construction.inside is a large collection of rocks designed to collapse if anyone tries to dig there way in-

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Which means a lot has been found inside-

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[drron29]

The young local lads were playing a game trying to get a pine cone onto the material.

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The next visit was to the area's Museum.Really good and I recommend a visit-

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[drron29]

To me this museum is amazing.The objects date from the first century when the antecedents of the Silla dynasty were established in this area.The dynasty collapsed in the middle of the 10th century so a lot of what you see here is between 1-2 thousand years old.So a random selection of the very large collection-

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And a model of the region in Silla times.The large elevated area to the left is the Royal Palace.The museum is on the left side of that area now.

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Lots of English signs so you do understand what you are seeing.An example-

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Interesting doors on the elevators-

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[drron29]

We now wandered around outside and there are lots more objects to view-

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At the museum and at many other sites in the area there are headless buddhas.Have no idea why there are no heads-

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Some of the flowers around the Museum-

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And a Buddha head without a body-

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And one of the famous exhibits-the Emille bell.Legend has it a young child was sacrificed by throwing the live body into the molten metal before casting hence it's distinctive tone.Like a child singing.Hopefully just legend.

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Now our bus trip back to the ship-

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A temple,not a 20th century symbol.

 

Now we were to stop at a tourist bamboo grove on the way back.Our bus driver lost his way and we went down this quite rural road until we reached a bridge the bus would not fit on.Personally that was more interesting than walking through a bamboo grove.

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[drron29]

Overnight and we reached Shiminoseki.This though for us was just to do Japanese Immigration formalities.It didn't stop the locals from again welcoming us.They came on board to do it this time-

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No it wasn't silly hat day in Shiminoseki but the puffer fish is the symbol of the prefecture hence the hats.We each got a welcome pack with tourist information and a postcard.Mrsdrron was pleased there wasn't a silly hat in the bag.Then off and through Immigration which was quite a shambles.The Immigration forms had changed on April 1st.They no longer need to leave a departure card in the passport but none of the officers had the English to explain that to us.Once through though there were others to greet us-

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It was a 2 hour bus trip to Hagi.A comfort stop just before Hagi.I was comfortable so walked around for the 10 minutes.It was obvious though that peak blossom time was over.

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Those are the Chosu 5 who came from the Hagi area.They were smuggled out of Japan on one of Thomas Glover's ships.The first Prime minister of Japan and it's first Foreign minister were 2 of those 5.

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In this area we began seeing lot's of citrus-

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We then reached Shizuki park and the ruins of Hagi castle.Note the ice cream.It is natsukan flavour,bitter orange.It was very refreshing.

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Hagi is known for it's pottery and there are several shops here.The an upmarket pottery place where mrsdrron managed to find something to buy-

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[drron29]

So to the ruins of Hagi castle-

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The green cherry blossom-

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Time for lunch.We went to the Senshuraku restaurant.

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And the after pic-

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[drron29]

Interesting decorations at the hotel-

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Not surprisingly as the puffer fish is the prefecture's emblem you could get your fugu at the shop-

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As the fugu is meant to be cut very fine I don't think you should try the cheaper boxes.

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The hotel is on a very nice beach-

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[drron29]

Then the street outside-

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We then got the bus to the old samurai quarter.The parking lot showed us we didn't miss peak blossoms by much-

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We visited the Kikuya Samurai House.Interesting and a great little garden-

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Edited August 6, 2016 by drron29

[drron29]

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The office with computers-

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I really enjoyed this garden.A comparatively small area but so much detail.I enjoyed the different rocks and the interplay with the plants and the little bit of whimsy when the rocks were placed as if stairs but led just to a wall of the building.The shapes and colours of the trees and plants.It is why I took lots of photos here.

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The peonies were just starting to flower-

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[drron29]

Then we had some free time to wander around the village-

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That is Giichi Tanaka another from this area to become PM.It was in 1927.

[drron29]

Now it is off to the Tokoji temple-

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The first part of this complex including the temple is really not that impressive so you do wonder why this is a must visit.A few more pics around the temple with another example of a Japanese downpipe-

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You then go off to the side between 2 rows of samurai graves.Then you glimpse through the trees something that turns out to be spectacular-

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