Thursday 21st May - Cowra

Thursday 21^st May

On Thursday we went to Cowra. On the way we stopped at a Japanese Garden. At the Japanese Garden their were ponds with carp in. We were allowed to feed the carp if we bought special fish food. At the first pond the carp were very hungry but so were the ducks too and the ducks like the fish food. The fish and the ducks had a race but the ducks got more food then the fish. 

This is the fish having a race with the ducks.

This is me feeding the fish.

This is me next to a bush that looks like a cupcake with sprinkles on.

This is me with a Japanese vase.

On the way back to the car we stopped to have a photo with a big model rhinoceros.

Mum's note:
The Japanese Garden at Cowra is the largest Japanese garden in the southern hemisphere. It was built here because Cowra is the site of the POW camp that held Australia's Japanese (and Italian, Indonesian and Taiwanese) prisoners during WWII.

Ruins at the WWII POW site.

Japanese cemetery at Cowra.

Unfortunately nearly 1000 Japanese decided to try to escape. This cost many lives, Japanese as well as 4 Australian. However, the locals responded by treating the escapees with kindness as they were rounded up, buried the casualties with respect in the local cemetery, and maintained the graves. This has over time led to very close ties between Cowra and Japan, the building of the Japanese Garden, the only Japanese cemetery outside Japan and the award of Australia's Peace Bell being located in Cowra. We had a walk around the POW site and spoke a little with the kids about Paul's Pop, who had been a POW at the hands of the Japanese.

At the gardens we saw many Japanese artefacts, including several types of pottery, paintings, Samurai costumes, a Japanese house with a furo (Japanese bath), a Daruma doll (Isabel was able to tell me what this was from Japanese studies at school) and Japan's National Anthem Rock.

Isabel and the Daruma Doll for the planting of Sakura (Cherry Tree) Avenue.

The rock that symbolises Japan's National Anthem.