Koko-en Gardens, a Shrine and a View – Joel’s Journeys & Jaunts

When I was at Himeji Castle this morning, I bought a combination ticket that included admission to Koko-en, a traditional Japanese garden just outside of the inner moat of Himeji Castle.

After that, I took a walk to a shrine most of the way up a hill and enjoyed the view from there and from the summit above it.

I leave for my next destination tomorrow morning. So, you know the drill.

That is to say, you know the drill if you read this journal religiously. And, if you do read this journal religiously, aren’t you glad that my church doesn’t charge any dues or have any strict dietary laws? And praying to me isn’t going to help anyone one little bit, so don’t bother.

If you stumbled on this page from the great beyond and aren’t familiar with the custom, a few trips ago, I started providing brief summaries of my time in a location on the last post from that location. The summary for Himeji appears below.

Koko-en

The plural “gardens” that I put in the title of this post is appropriate. Koko-en is nine connected gardens, each with its own motif, in a single overarching garden. All but one of them are gorgeous.

The gardens are, and these are the English names provided by Koko-en itself, “The Garden of Bamboo,” “The Garden with a Hill and a Pond,” “The Garden of Pine Trees,” “The Garden of Summer Trees,” “The Small River Garden,” “The Flatly Landscaped Garden,” “The Garden of Seedlings,” “The Garden of Flowers,” and “The Garden of the Lord’s Residence.”

Except for The Garden of the Lord’s residence, the names might lack creativity, but they are self-explanatory. They contain what they say they contain, but often also a path or paths winding through them, a small pond, a stream, stepping stones crossing the stream, and some vegetation elements not mentioned in the name. Not every garden contains a pond and/or a stream, but several do.

The Garden of Flowers didn’t have many flowers in bloom at this time of year (mid-November), but there was a flowering tree filled with lush, bright pink flowers. Flowers in mid-November. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Toronto anymore.

Aside: Speaking to Toto might be something people in Japan do when they’ve had way too much to drink. Toto seems to be the most popular, by far, brand of toilets here. Apropos of nothing, the toilets in all of my hotel rooms so far have come with built-in bum water jets to clean you after you, well, you know. There is also a separate bidet button labeled “front,” with an appropriate icon, but that isn’t useful for me.

Even without more flowers, the one flowering tree and the overall greenery in The Garden of Flowers were beautiful.

The Garden of the Lord’s Residence is the largest of the gardens. There is no motif to it that I could discern, but it has a larger pond than elsewhere in Koko-en. Quite large quantities of colourful koi quietly cavorting in that quaint pond. (I was a younger man before I spent the time to compose the previous sentence.)

I said that there was one garden in Koko-en that was less than gorgeous. That was the seedling garden. I imagine it’s much more attractive in the spring and summer, but I guess most of the seedlings are done for the season or have been transplanted elsewhere.

There’s also a restaurant and a teahouse in Koko-en. (Should there be an en dash in Koko-en? It seems appropriate, doesn’t it?)

I didn’t go into the restaurant, but I did visit the teahouse. They provide an abbreviated, simplified Japanese matcha tea ceremony. The teahouse provides a brochure that says and shows how it works.

I’m not sure if this is how it’s set up everywhere, but in the hall where the tea ceremony was, there’s a central mat that looks like it’s made of bamboo, but may not be. Another wide mat, this one made of a felt-like material and red, was along three of the walls of the room, all of the walls except the side where the attendants bring in the tea.

Attendees “sit” on the felt-like mats on the floor to drink their tea. Sit is in quotations because traditionally, you’re supposed to drink while kneeling with your knees bent as far as they’ll bend, your shins flat on the floor, and your upper legs under your bum. The brochure didn’t say that, but there was an illustration.

When I entered, there were a few Westerners and a few people who looked Japanese already in the tearoom. The Japanese assumed that pose. The Westerners sat on the floor with their legs crossed. I wanted to do it the traditional way. So I bent my knees and sat on my feet.

That lasted for about five seconds. I had to switch to a legs-crossed position because I thought it would go against tradition if I broke out in a scream louder than what one might expect if someone were subjected to the most extreme torture.

Another Westerner came in after me and sat down in the only open spot, one beside me. He initially assumed a legs-crossed position. Then he saw how the Japanese were sitting. He switched to their pose. After maybe 20 minutes, he started to squirm uncomfortably. He lasted for perhaps another 10 seconds before he switched back to sitting with his legs crossed.

Later, an elderly Japanese woman entered the hall. The attendants brought her a chair and a low table.

In a tea ceremony, the matcha tea always comes with a small, sweet confection. There’s a short stick, called a kuromoji, on the plate. It’s a single stick, not chopsticks.

When the attendant brings the tray with the tea and confection, she kneels in front of you with her legs folded under her and puts the tray on the bamboo-like mat. She then bows in your direction, and you bow back at her, say, thank you, and slide the tray onto the felt-like mat in front of you. The other Westerners said “thank you.” I was able to get out the Japanese “arigato,” but probably butchered the pronunciation. The attendant then got up and left politely.

You eat the confection with the kuromoji before having your tea.

You’re supposed to pick up and turn the teacup clockwise, placing the front (there’s some Japanese lettering on the front) away from you before bowing and saying thank you. I forgot and did it after the attendant left.

You then drink your tea, but there are specific instructions on how to do that, too.

When you’re finished, you don’t just get up and leave. You turn the teacup so the front is facing you and bow your head in appreciation. The attendant returns, again sits with her legs folded under her. You then bow to each other and say thanks again and she takes the tray. And then, you’re done.

My understanding is that’s a simplified and abbreviated tea ceremony, and I still managed to screw some of it up. It’s a very calm, formal way to enjoy matcha tea. Tradition. Tradition!

Otokoyama Hachimangu Shrine

After I left Koko-en, I took a walk around behind it and behind the castle to get to Otokoyama Hachimangu Shrine. It was only about a 15-minute walk, but the last part of the walk was up a long set of stairs. The shrine sits almost at the top of a high hill.

My guidebooks don’t mention Otokoyama Hachimangu Shrine. I found it through TripAdvisor. The primary picture it displayed showed what I considered to be a spectacular sunset, with the sun going down a little to the left of the Himeji Castle. It looked amazing.

The shrine is nothing special, but there is a great view of the castle from there. However, more stairs go all the way up to the summit. Up there, there’s a plateau with an attractive park. An engraved sign told me, with the help of Google Translate, that the park is atop the Otokoyama reservoir and a part of a water system built in the early 1920s. I couldn’t discern from the sign if it’s still used to supply water to Himeji.

The park is a little higher than the shrine, and there’s more of a clearing, so there’s an even better view of Himeji Castle from there. Having taken in that view, I had to revise my opinion that it was a great location to get a fabulous view of the sunset off to the left of the castle.

I was there late afternoon. The sun was not to the left of the castle. It was a little to my right and behind me as I faced the castle. I’ll bet that position makes for an incredible sunrise, but I’ll never know because I don’t do sunrises.

Bonus Pictures

On the way back to my hotel, I walked by a part of the Himeji Castle moat. The water in the moat was mirror-smooth. And the light from the sun, which was then low in the sky, provided a fabulous reflection of the castle wall on the water.

Here are some pictures of that:

Himeji Summary

Except for Himeji Castle, Himeji doesn’t get much attention from guidebooks, at least not the ones I’ve looked at. I’ve seen a couple of sources recommend that tourists pause in Himeji between other stops and take in the castle before moving on and staying somewhere else for the night.

I didn’t want to do that. For one thing, that sounded like rushing things too much. I’m getting old. I can’t push myself as much as I used to. For another, I don’t have a car in Japan and wouldn’t even consider renting one here because they drive on the wrong side of the road. I couldn’t figure out what I’d do with my luggage while I was in Himeji if I took a train here and left without spending the night.

I didn’t see much of Himeji, so this might be an unfair judgment, but I found the city itself, or what little I saw of it, to be unexciting. Nevertheless, the sights I saw were fantastic—all of them.

Thanks to the high-speed trains in Japan, I was able to get to Himeji from Osaka before noon, without having to get up early. If I’d spent only one night in Himeji, that would have left me plenty of time to see Himeji Castle, which I saw this morning. I might have also had time to squeeze in the next-door Koko-en, but I wouldn’t have had time to see Otokoyama Hachimangu Shrine and Engyo-ji Temple, which I saw yesterday afternoon.

The two nights I spent here gave me plenty of time to do that. I’m not aware of any other sights that are especially worth seeing in Himeji, and from what I’ve seen, there are more scenic cities that I could have gone to just to relax. So, more days likely would have bored me. That said, I’m glad I stopped in Himeji for the length of time I did.