So soon it's over

All too soon it's over.
We awoke early on Sunday morning, which is not my normal routine I'll admit! I usually like to catch up on sleep debts and recover from my relaxing Saturday evening out. This Saturday night had us watching schoolchildren singing and then relaxing in the bar with a few beers.
Sunday morning was a strange day really. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and it still tried to rain and so we didn't really go out for our invigorating morning spa. Instead we sat and had breakfast on the hotel patio daring the rain to appear from the hidden mists. Halfway through breakfast we stopped playing cat and mouse with the weather after it threatened to ruin breakfast three times and we found that we were almost the last occupied table out there. Everyone else had the good sense to move inside. Oh we hardy brave souls!

After breakfast the mists cleared and the sky brightened and we could see the bridge again. I am not a great lover of concrete but this entire complex from the conference center to the hotel, the shops, the gardens and the theater has a strange alluring appeal. You can see the hotel in the top image with the complex stretching away to the left towards the open air theater. The conference center is on the far side from this vantage point on the '100 flower beds' and the promenade garden is behind from that view. All of this was built by the very famous architect, Tandao Ando. In a story similar to the rising of the Phoenix from the ashes, this was built after the devastating great earthquake of January 17, 1995 left the area in ruins. There is the Hokudan Earthquake Memorial Park and a Quake museum nearby that amongst other exhibits, actually shows how much movement occurred in the fault.


We climbed the 100 flower beds with each level climbed being its own reward with a new and stunning visual beauty of such wonderful floral displays. The view from the top and looking back was heady too, a sea of flowing color leading to the warren like concrete art that makes this resort so visually appealing. The climb down was very much easier I have to say!

The flowers are not just contained within the flower beds and official gardens, they are used as decor to brighten up the stark concrete and add color to the static monotony. They even hid my monotones!

Then it was a late lunch and time to catch the bus back to Kobe and from there the train home.
Life goes back to the routines and the schedules and is reconnected by our telephone calls to say "We're home!"