Our heading has come out of three consecutive days of dipping into history.

First was a visit to Narai Juka which is the best preserved of many historical villages founded in the Edo period (1603-1868) along the route from Tokyo to Kyoto. The Emperor had decreed that all travel between the 2 cities must be on foot unless you were on Govt business when horses could be used. The villages had a duty to provide lodgings and food for travellers. In addition one or two sizeable households were selected as official inns for the Govt travellers and had to ensure horses could be fed, watered and exchanged as required and they had to ensure human labourers for government business were always available. As the major user of these facilities was post carriers they became known as “Post Towns” They still retain a sizeable population judging by the number of the original buildings in use as homes but some have converted frontage to trade from as tea houses/coffee shops, restaurants, B&B or shops selling local products like herbal medicine, lacquerware and craft items

Our next historical location was the town of Kanasawa to visit the renowned gardens of Kenrokuen which were created in 1600. These occupy an elevated position in the centre of the town and are considered one of Japan’s three most beautiful gardens, The name Kenrokuen means “having six factors”, representing the attributes of the garden: spaciousness, tranquility, artifice, antiquity, water sources and magnificent views.The garden covers an area of 11.4 hectares and looks over the city below with views to the nearby coastline.

In trying to find parking ( not easy) we stumbled across a museum with parking on the edge of the gardens. The parking was the attraction but on visiting the museum discovered an amazing display of local crafts and art that the museum had been set up to showcase

Our final delve into the past was the dinosaur museum in Fukui which was built specifically to house what they had found in a quarry in the river valley. It was a museum which not only exhibited the local findings of dinosaur remains but had acquired exhibits from around the world and a very wide range of human anthropological remains that showed the evolution of man and other animals. All housed in a stunning setting, no wonder it is regarded as one of the leading archaeological museums in the world. …