A Sakura-Sanpo in Minoh Park

Having the combination of a day-off, good weather and sakura being in bloom, I decided to go for a walk in Minoh Park.

Despite having been there countless times, I'd never visited when the cherry blossoms were out.

Also it had been a few years since I'd been out to see sakura anyway, I was quite excited. 

And I'm pleased to say I was not disappointed!

Because I was going out looking for Sakura, I decided to take one of the lesser-treaded paths up to Sakura Hiroba, then go back down to the station via Ryuanji and the insect museum.

It would have been nice to go all the way up to the waterfall too, but since I had two boys with me, one of them strapped to me the whole time and the other being carried half the time, I decided not to over do it.

Start: Sakurai station 

Me and my crew got on the train and headed to Minoh.

At Minoh Station, we had the good fortune of coming across an exciting police car.

Climbing To Sakura Hiroba

After we got to Minoh station we headed up the taki no michi, past the maple leaf tempura vendors, foot spa and cafes. At the bicycle parking we took the path going off to the left, in order to reach the Sakura Hiroba instead of following the main path. It got really steep here, but the first member of my gang very gallantly walked almost all the way up by himself.

Sakura Hiroba

Sakura Hiroba has its own observation deck just off to the side, so we stopped there and had our packed lunches. We found ourselves getting rolled into a family we encountered along the way - no words were exchanged but we seemed to have an unspoken agreement that we would hike, rest and eat together for a time. As you can probably see from the photos, the sakura wasn't at peak blossom, but it was  nice to be there.

Down to Ryuanji

We followed the path on from the Sakura Hiroba and went down to Ryuanji. Along the way there were a few crossroads, one of which goes all the way to Mt Roko in Hyogo! And we came across two ladies that had hikes all the way from there. They asked us if it they were heading in the right direction for Minoh Station and we happily pointed them in the right direction. (They had already been going in the right direction actually but we confirmed it)

Believe it or not this was the first time I'd ventured into Ryuanji, and I enjoyed visiting it. I liked the status with monkey motifs, and its always nice to see a Jizo statue. I was intrigued by the hall labeled as housing Japan's oldest Benzai Ten Sama (one of the seven gods of good fortune from Japanese mythology - she also has her own shrine within Katsuoji) - but slightly disappointed that it was sealed shut.

Sakura Park And Taki No Michi

In front of Ryuanji is this wide open space with some Sakura trees, that I've taken the liberty of calling "Sakura Park" here. Check out the cherry blossoms.

Taki No Michi, Zui-un Bridge & Rare Salamander

Walking back down towards the station I saw the bridge, known as "Zui-un hashi" (hasi=bridge), and in the river alongside it much to my delight, a rare type of salamander

called a Cryptobranchoidea. These animals are sadly on the verge of extinction, which made it all the more exciting to see one.

The Way Home: Insect Museum &  Sakurai's Art Galleries

On the way back, we stopped at the insect museum, and then both of Sakurai's art galleries.

The insect museum is always great, and the staff are very kind and eager to help single parents in charge of two small children, who may or may not require milk formula half way through the museum, or get overwhelmed in the butterfly house.

Then in Sakura at Art Gallery Time, we visited the Hiroko Kawazoe exhibition which was fascinating. She paints a material which is made by dissolving amethyst and other coloured rocks in a substance, the name of which I couldn't really get when she was explaining it to me. It was very cool though, and there were lots of evocative and beautiful pieces. Unfortunately we went on the last day of that exhibition, but you might be able to see Kawazoe's work at another exhibition.

After that we also ducked into Contemporary Art Gallery Zone, in the Sakurai Ichiba. There was a vibrant exhibition, with a number of different artists' work. Since we were a bit tired, we only looked at one artist's work in detail, which was multilayered and used washi paper as well as crocheting.

That exhibiton still has a few days left - it ends of April 1st, so get down there if you can!

Anyway, that's all from me for now, goodbye!