Kiyosumi Gardens, my first sight entering
I remember one day I was planning to start my day with a certain museum that had nothing else to do in the area except that. I took the metro and after a long time (it was far from my hotel) I got off it and saw a sign that the museum was closed for 4 days including that day!! I was so disappointed and frustrated!! So I turned to go back when I saw another sign that pointed to some gardens…and I though “oh what the hell, I am here…” and I went to the Kiyosumi Gardens. And I was so amazed!!! I though I was dreaming or something, it was like an oasis. Until then I hadn’t been in any Japanese garden like these, only at the parks as Yoyogi etc. and had no idea that these small paradises exist!!
I wandered there quite a time, I walked the circular path around the pond, saw the huge fishes and the ducks, I was trying to capture a crane that was standing but didn’t make it, I found myself in a glade with a plum tree or something like this with purple flowers and some cherry blossoms at their bloom beginning, I stalked a kid chasing some pigeons, admired the nature that was so carefully cared.
In Japanese landscape gardens, every tree, bush or rock is there by a plan, so that the whole picture is ideal and the visitor will feel calm and peaceful and amazed by the beauty. Especially in the Kiyosymi gardens the many stones are a highlight, as they’re highly sought after and valuable and some of them are even famous!
So, imagine that in every turn or seating place or path you see something different and you walk through different kind of paths. Also, as you walk around a large pond, you see every time another aspect of the place.
In general I went at 3-4 Japanese gardens, I liked to go in the morning with a cup of coffee and my favorite cinnamon roll and beginning my day in zen spirit! I even got a book with me to read but I was strolling around so many hours at the end-there are so many spots to see!- that never had the time to open it.
The other garden I liked a lot was the Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens which is one of the oldest and best gardens in Tokyo. It was named Korakuen after a poem encouraging a ruler to enjoy pleasure only after achieving happiness for his people. It has the circuit style as also, with ponds and manmade hills centering on the pond and combines the Japanese and Chinese landscapes resulting to a really scenic beauty!
There are so many things to see there, feel like you are in a forest walking to dark paths under high trees, near small rivers even a small waterfall, climbing and find some old shrines or ruins of them, bridges etc. and of course admire the first cherry tree blossoms when I went.
If you like nature and all these trees, plants and flowers depending on the season then Japanese landscape gardens are a perfect place to be! I don’t know if it’s something I would recommend to anyone but if you are like my I surely do! I loved them!
And of course some sakura photos couldn’t be missing from this post! They are something extraordinary to look at! It’s not unjustly considered the super spring highlight of Japan, for all over the world. And in popular places they are full of Japanese people photographing them, trying to capture the perfect flower bud! I really love the photo with the cat resting on the branch 😉 Unfortunately I wasn’t there but G. sent it to me from Nakameguro afterwards where it must have been magical!
Have you felt the happiness of spring and the calmness of nature or is it just me that remembered the feeling?..
Check out the other posts about my trip to Tokyo here, here and here!
my blue flamingo 