Around Gifu Park

What?
Gifu (岐阜市) is the capital of the prefecture that bears the same name (岐阜県). While it has probably more to offer, I visited the pretty Gifu Park (岐阜公園) that is overseen by a hilltop castle and the Great Buddha of Gifu in Shohoji Temple (岐阜大仏（正法寺）).
Where?
Gifu can be easily reached in approximately 20 minutes by train from bigger neighbor Nagoya (名古屋). Being centrally located, the absence of a shinkansen station is a minor point though. Yes, there is Gifu-Hashima Station (岐阜羽島駅), but given the bad connection between this station and Gifu you might as well take the cheaper trains departing from Nagoya.
URL
Gifu City Visit Gifu

I consider myself not very lucky in most of my travels; I usually bump into construction cranes and due to my job I can’t travel in the best seasons. On the other hand, that same job makes it possible to travel around the country, take a few days off afterwards and see a bit of places I normally wouldn’t go to.
The same story here: I was luckily in the neighborhood to watch a football game of my favorite team on the away side in Gifu. As the game was at noon I had limited time and decided to only visit Gifu Park, the castle and the Great Buddha, all not too far away from FC Gifu’s stadium. But yes, constructions, again.

However this time it didn’t really bother me. The construction is to make the park bigger and connect the current Gifu Park with the Gokoku Shrine and the Japan-China Friendship Garden a few 100 meters away. And I’m all for that. Gifu Park is very laid back and welcoming. You can take the cable car to the top and walk an additional 10 minutes to see the reconstructed castle. The top has really nice views of the surroundings and the castle looks equally as charming. I don’t recommend entering though, as the inside is the usual from a reconstructed castle: concrete floors with some weapons and armory on display.
You can also choose to hike to the top through various trails. I didn’t have the time, but though it doesn’t seem so high I did have the impression the hill was quite steep.

Gifu Park

Gifu Castle

View from the top of the castle.

Shohoji Temple with the Great Buddha inside.

The Gokoku Shrine had quite the same atmosphere as the park: laid back and interesting enough to pay a visit. The various quirky small statues make it stand apart from other shrines.

And I was also pleasantly surprised about the Gifu Great Buddha in Shohoji Temple. The building looks like it can collapse anytime, but that would be a pity given the beautiful statues inside. This includes of course the Great Buddha, but also dozens of wooden statues of what I assume are disciples.

Strolling towards the stadium I passed by a dock where several cormorant fishing boats were harbored. Although it is contested, I wanted to see this practice once, but the real fishing season hasn’t yet started so no demonstrations were given.

For the limited time I had in Gifu I found that the area around Gifu Park was very charming. Not stunning, not breathtaking, but nice enough to recommend if you’d happen to be in the neighborhood.