Right next door to the hotel are the remains of the Takamatsu Castle. It was famous for being surrounded on three sides by seawater filled moats, giving the appearance of the castle floating on the water. The main castle is no longer in existence but a watch tower has survived and other newer buildings are here. Most importantly the walls and the moats are still here. So many manicured pine trees are growing in the garden of the castle grounds that it is overwhelming. Most of them are manicured in the cloud pruning format. We even saw a arborist up in one of the trees snipping away vigorously. All the trimmed pine needle bunches were falling into the canal, We had a fine tour and when we reached the other end of the park we decided to visit Kitahama Alley. The brochures made this seem like a cool funky area that has a shops and cafes in a vibrant neighborhood reclaimed from old warehouses. That may be the case in the summer but we only saw two shops that were open and we had to leave the second one as the blaring noise from the vintage pinball machines was unbearable. Oh well, it is part of the adventure. We walked back through the castle park and back to the room to warm up a bit.
Your guess is as good as mine
A series of sculptures were in the front of the park
Walking man
Strolling woman
The fine pines begin
Three big ones at the entrance
The moat was filled with seawater there is a system to regulate the water level
Pine cones were being collected to possibly make a huge cone shape from the smaller cones, see the picture on the sign
Along the water with t he top of the watchtower showing
Loving another fine sunny day
The pine trees were everywhere
New leaves coming out red colored
The trees looked like grown up bonsai trees
Who is that in the trees?
The Leipster it is
Nice old style roof tiles on this building erected in 1917
The Japanese gardens were
We wandered about for an hour
On gravel paths and through the trees
Many small bridges and rock stepping stones cross numerous waterways
The Watchtower
Still standing talll
One of the original gates
There are plans afoot to rebuild the castle
Possible a well of a water catchment system
the watchtower through the trees
Idyllic
The gardeners work area
Our hotel off in the distance
A cycad grove
The park headquarters
Bonsai!
It is tree trimming time
This arborist was working hard snipping off bunches of pine needles
All the debris was floating in t he moat
The arborist is in the middle of the tree working over the water
The rebuilt castle will be built on this base
It is almost 15:00 according to my phone, the clouds had rendered the sundial useless
At the far end was a cherry tree grove
Pink lanterns are hanging in the trees
A guard shack at the other end of the park
Lots of flowers along the walk to Kitahama Alley
Nice manhole covers
A Ferris Wheel in the distance
Not much going on here so we turned around and headed back
Cool trolleys passing by
Back through the gardens
Boat rides
This was the fish feeding system. Pour the food in the opening and the food goes down the tube to the fish below
The sea bream was eyeing us for food
Back to the other side of the park
Tulips!
Barnacles?
It is an odd sculpture indeed
A large red lighthouse
