That day in Ritsurin Park | A running account from Setouchi to Kyoto

It took more than a month to continue writing this chronicle.

This is the result of not diligently recording during the trip. Not only are many of my feelings no longer what they were before, but I also lose the motivation to write them down. Fortunately, when writing, I still feel a little bit of enjoyment.

In the past month or so, I have been to Huangshan and Hangzhou, and walked through the "Watercolor Sketching Journey from Fuchun River to Xin'an River" project route that I will be planning in October. Dong Qi and I will find a place after dinner every night. Drink a cup of honey and red date tea and chat about life, worldly affairs, and your past confusions and current state of mind. I also took advantage of this trip to walk around Maojiabu alone in the early morning. I deeply felt the beauty of life among the shady summer trees and winding paths. In the past month or so, I have conducted three interviews with people of thirty years and ten years, and two articles have been published. Although the experiences are different, I can feel their sincerity to myself and their gratitude for life. Over the past month or so, I have read half of the book "The Silk Road" intermittently. I read the truth about the Crusades, sighed when I read about the fall of Constantinople, and felt excited when I read about the Mongolian army sweeping across the Eurasian continent. to the golden age of Samarkand and longing for walking in Uzbekistan. Over the past month or so, Beijing has suddenly jumped from the extremely hot July to August, which rains every day and is as cool as autumn... At this time, early August has passed, and the trip to Kyoto in Shikoku, Japan has been two months away. . How long can we retain the memory of an experience? After two months, will there be only a trace or an outline left? However, when we look back attentively, it seems that we can dig out and piece together bit by bit the scenes, moods and even words spoken at that time...

Now, I'm trying to figure out the day we went to Ritsurin Park. On that day, my guide said "May 27, Takamatsu City, Ritsurin Park." Our schedule basically follows the guide.

We still went to the hotel lobby for breakfast around 8 a.m. Although the breakfast included in our room rate only included two kinds of bread, butter, jam, salad, milk, cereal soaked in milk, and three kinds of fruit juices, and there was no additional miso soup, rice, and egg rolls, we still enjoyed it every day. It was a satisfying meal, especially with the green beans and mashed potatoes in the salad. Maybe it’s because eating breakfast at home is too much. Now when I’m traveling, I can sit down and eat such a healthy breakfast leisurely, and chat while doing it. I feel like I’m eating like an emperor.

After breakfast, I went back to the room to tidy up as usual, put on sunscreen, filled the thermos with hot water, and went out at around nine o'clock.

After leaving early and returning late, we took a boat to the island for two days. Today's plan is to wander around Takamatsu city as a way to adjust the itinerary. The most famous thing in downtown Takamatsu is Ritsurin Park, a 17th-century Japanese garden, which is said to be one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan. Before doing the guide, my colleague Sissi also recommended this courtyard to me, saying that it contains the most beautiful pine trees in Japan.

We turned on the navigation system and walked to Kotohira Tram Station. It was a small station with a sign showing "Direction to Ritsurin Park". The tram with only two carriages came in, and our photographer Xian Hui also recorded this moment - later she said that she wanted to take a series of "station" themed photos, stations in various places, and various stop signs. , cars, people. Well, this should be a topic with quite a story to tell.

The carriage must be quite old, but everything is clean, the green velvet benches, floors, window sills, everything is clean, and there is no smell. When everyone comes to Japan, they are deeply impressed by its neat and clean environment and well-maintained facilities. Think about why in China, the traffic is so congested that people are still reluctant to take the subway. It is crowded and smelly, and the body odor is mixed with pork, green onions, leeks, tobacco, alcohol, bad breath, and not taking a shower or washing clothes. When taking a taxi from Didi, 50 or 60 times out of 10, the air in the car will make you feel as if you have crawled into the driver's bed, plus stains on the seat cushions, shoe prints on the back of the front seat, etc. Looking at our train stations, those high-speed rail stations that are as tall and bright as terminal buildings only need two years. In two years, they will have the same taste as the old train stations - the taste of California beef noodles and sour soup dumplings. What about high-speed rail? Of course, it has the same braised beef noodles flavor as the red and green cars. Alas, after so many years of preaching about the Five Lectures and the Four Beauties, how can our heavenly country still look like this?

It's only three stops to Ritsurin Park. After coming out, you have to walk through a long park front street. Although it is the most famous tourist attraction in Takamatsu City, there is not a single shop selling tourist souvenirs on Front Street. It is just the daily life of the neighborhood such as pharmacies, law firms, convenience stores, apartments, parking lots, flower shops, and training classes. Nearly ten o'clock in the morning. After ordering, except for the convenience store, all the doors on the street were closed. It was clean and too deserted.

The entrance to Ritsurin Park is also clean, but when you move to the ticket office inside the park, its popularity increases. One of our compatriots from the tour group is buying tickets there, and the Cantonese can be heard. We checked in with them and entered the park. The Chinese tour guide loudly introduced the attractions inside to them. We had to slow down and visit a house nearby called "Sanuki Folk Art Museum" first. Although The objects displayed inside are not very exciting, but they can avoid the "big army".

We bought tickets for the 11 o'clock boat trip to Nanhu Lake, and we walked slowly along the farther path to the pier. The pine trees in the garden are truly stunning! Zhizhi said that their company bought a pine tree a while ago and put it in a villa for their own use. It was not as big or as beautiful as the one here, so they spent 5 million... After hearing what she said, we felt even more like Lilin Park. It’s amazing, and I think it’s worth our time to come. Although we can’t take away a single leaf, it’s worth seeing it!

Alas, it’s vulgar, it’s vulgar, how can we look at such a place with such a humanistic artistic conception with such a vulgar eye!

This garden had been a private garden of local daimyo before the Meiji period. It was built about 400 years ago. In the 19 years after its construction, it changed its owner three times and fell into the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu's grandson Matsudaira Yoshige. After that, it went through five generations of feudal lords. It took more than 100 years to slowly polish it into its current scale and scenery.

The feudal lord, the Matsudaira family, is the "Mito Tokugawa family", one of the three Tokugawa families. The feudal lords of all generations have been the "deputy generals of the world". Therefore, they have the ability to build such an elegant and cost-effective garden. However, their Mito family was very aggrieved. Unlike the other two Tokugawa Gosan families, their Mito family was stipulated by Tokugawa Ieyasu: "If the male descendants of Shogun Hidetada are cut off, they can only start from the end." Men from Zhang Fan or Ji Yi Fan are not allowed to choose from the Mihu family. "This is like Emperor Qianlong's death order in our "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace": "Yong Huang and Yong Zhang are not allowed to inherit my inheritance!" So, Shui! Every family really needs a big garden to relieve their worries! It is not easy to relieve depression and sorrow. For example, drinking wine can relieve the sorrow, and the sorrow can be relieved by building a garden. The garden has grown bigger and bigger, and it has become the largest garden in Japan. As for the men of the Mito family, few live long. However, the Mito family could always have an endless stream of heirs, so much so that in the late Edo period, when other Tokugawa family members failed to succeed, they had to be adopted from his family. After the Meiji Restoration, the Mito family was classified as a Hana (noble) and was granted the title of Marquis, later promoted to Duke, and established a corporate foundation. Contemporary descendants have also successively held important positions in the House of Nobles and the Senate.

Although the garden is large in scale, its exquisiteness is no less than that of famous gardens in Kyoto. It truly lives up to the Mito family’s meticulous construction over a century. It is true that Japan maintains its historical sites relatively authentically.

However, once you get close to a large tourist group, the chatter between the tour guides and tourists, the aunts and children taking photos, and the atmosphere and emotions emanating from the dense crowd. No matter how elegant and authentic the scenery is, it will also be affected by the crowd's atmosphere. The scene is so isolated that everything you see and feel is mixed up in the anxiety of the crowd.

Fortunately, the park’s South Lake rafting experience does not accept group orders. There is only one small boat in the entire lake. In addition to the boatman holding the pole, it can accommodate up to 6 people and the trip takes an hour. Purchase the boat ticket at the entrance of the park. The time slot for boating has been arranged in sequence when you purchase it. Just go to the dock according to the time.

The pier is very hidden. After arriving at the general direction, we still got lost among the winding paths, arch bridges, and forest rocks. The three of us compared the map and discussed it for a long time. In the end, we met a Japanese tour group. , asked their Japanese tour guide to find the way.

In fact, the pier is right behind where we got lost, completely hidden in the woods. Just like a secret waiting area, a waterway that can only accommodate two boats will lead to the outside stage - Nanhu. The top of the waterway is also blocked by woods, and only tiny bits of sunlight can shine through the gaps between the branches and leaves, shining on the green and clear waterway.

There was a small room at the boarding area and a bench outside the room. A family of three were already sitting there. The father and son were both strong and chubby. There were two other girls standing there. They are all Chinese. We also sat there for seven or eight minutes, and a boatman wearing a hat and work clothes came over to count people and check tickets. He was a thin European and American who looked to be in his forties, and his voice was as soft as a mosquito.

It turned out that the mother of the family of three and one of the young girls did not take the boat. The rest, we happened to be the 6 people who visited the lake at 11 o'clock. After boarding the boat, the boatman first took a group photo of us on the shore with our mobile phones. The young girl’s friends and the mother also took photos of them respectively, and then waved goodbye to us. The young girl said that her friend also wanted to go on the boat trip, but when he bought the ticket, he was queued to 11:30, so he had to give up.

The boat swayed out of the waterway at an almost imperceptible speed and arrived at the open South Lake. On the left is the famous Yanyue Bridge. A girl in kimono walked across the bridge, and the scenery was wonderful. But the kimono girl is also looking at us, and we have become the scenery in her eyes. At this time, the boatman had begun to explain in English in a voice as light as a mosquito, and Xianhui muttered softly, "Well... I don't know."

The boatman actually said in shame: “I’m sorry! I can’t speak Chinese…”

The entire South Lake is actually not big, but the scenery is very layered, with distant mountains, houses, corridors, pavilions, arch bridges, streams, trees, and lake rocks. People swimming in the lake feel as if they are admiring a 3D version of Wen Zhengming's paintings. We are the only boat in the lake, and we all wear hats. To the people on the shore, we are also part of the picture.

The slow speed of the boat was like a cradle, and the boatman's soft voice was like a lullaby. The scene before me was so enchanting that before I knew it, I wandered for nine days again, and fell asleep for a while while sitting...

After landing, it was already 12 o'clock. Went to Fukishang Pavilion in the garden for lunch.

There is a small wetland in front of Fukigami Pavilion, which is actually the water source of Ritsurin Park. Water gushes out endlessly from here. Some tourists take pictures there because the streams there are paved with large natural stones, which is amazingly beautiful!

After lunch, we wandered to the Moon Pavilion. The Moon Pavilion is built next to Nanhu Lake and has two Michelin stars. It is a good place to drink tea in the garden. I think it's also a good place to take a nap.

We had tea and snacks in the front room facing Ziyun Mountain. Turning to the back space, there are tea rooms one after another, facing the South Lake, the dry landscape, the unique box pine garden, or the streams and forests. We sat in a corner facing dry mountains and rivers for a while, and the world was so quiet that it made people drowsy...

Why can Chinese people take a nap anywhere?

Usually, there are various things on my mind, such as doing this thing, planning that thing, plus the noise coming from the buzzing traffic in the city, or the continuous sound of knocking and decoration upstairs, or one after another on the phone saying whether it is important or not. It's important but we can't help but read the messages that we need to respond to in time... All of this makes us not only lose the sense of sleep during the afternoon nap, but we are even so excited that we even shorten the time to go to bed at night. Sometimes I feel that traveling is not necessarily about how special the scenery at the destination is, nor is it about seeing so many new things that I have never seen before, but it is about adjusting your own pace of life and occasionally changing your environment to live your life.

We stayed at Juyue Pavilion until about four o'clock in the afternoon before leaving. After exiting the garden gate, I decided to walk back to the hotel along a long shopping street running parallel to Central Avenue.

This is a shopping street connected by a shed on the roof - Minami Shinmachi, Marugame Town, plus Hyogo Town which turns towards the hotel, it is about two or three kilometers long. It seems that every sizable city in Japan has shopping streets like this in the city centre. The Teramachi area in Kyoto, Namba-Nihonbashi in Osaka, Nagoya in Fukuoka... I forgot the street names. This kind of shopping street that is both bright and open and can be protected from the sun and rain is very humane.

Takamatsu is mainly a local town, and the shops on the shopping streets basically serve local customers: supermarkets, hardware, MUJI, banks, international brands, law firms, watch repair shops, laundry, meat, etc. There are two drugstores, which are considered the busiest shops on the street. They are all visited by us Chinese. In fact, there should be a lot of Chinese people coming here to play. Many young people I met in Naoshima and Toshima are from China.

We also entered a "Daguo Cosmetic" store, and I finally bought canker sore patches and cold medicine. For some reason, I started to catch a cold on the first night after arriving in Japan, my nose kept running, and I couldn't open my eyes. I had been on the island early in the morning and back late in the past two days. There was no pharmacy, and even a search on the navigation system found nothing. I had been suffering from runny noses and tears for two or three days. The same goes for mouth ulcers. I ate and chewed something a day or two before departure, and it became inflamed here. I also bought a box of steam eye masks and two foot patches and started using them that night.

We also had dinner at the Japanese restaurant next to the drug store. I ordered a lot of things, but when I checked out, I realized that I couldn’t get it for only RMB 200. Xianhui sighed and said that she would come here for a big meal tomorrow.