Mori Gardens

Our final stop on our trip was up a very wet, very steep hill, and we eventually arrived, quite wet, and downtrodden. I hadn't really heard where we were going, but it was this lovely Mori family house.It is one of the largest, single family homes in all of Yamaguchi, and was home to a feudal lord. It actually was only just opened to the public a few years ago.
The entrance way was very grand, and we were given a tour by the current owner, who has turned it into a museum. We got to see where the feudal lord met his subjects, and learnt all sorts of things about the correct way to meet the lord, depending on what rank in life you were. And we got to see the beautiful walls, which
I thought were made from wallpaper, but were actually painted with liquid gold! He told us that the windows in the main recieving room were some special wavered glass, which was handblown. You couldn't see into them, and we were told not to touch them, because they are now worth 10,000 dollars....each! After viewing some of the lower realms of the house, we headed out into the garden.
It was so lovely, all traditional and Japanese, but it reminded me of a traditional English garden, with paths, and different trees, and rivers and benches. If it hadn't all been so wet, we could have had a snack in the garden there. But the sun did come out, and the rain stopped, which was lovely, and we all got to take some photos. Actually, a photo of us appeared in the local paper!