Trip to Japan: Tokyo. Rikugien Garden

• 17/06/2008 - 00:00
• Author: Yuki Sakuma
• Japan
• 0 Comments
• Read in IT

Rikugien park is located in Komagome, you can reach it very easily with the JR subway. The creation of the garden was commissioned by the chamberlain Yanagisawa Yoshiyasa in 1695 in the middle of the Tokugawa (or Edo) period.

    

In the Meiji period, the founder of Mitsubishi: Iwasaki Yataro contributed to its restauration. Inside the garden you can find a very big cherry tree and 88 sceneries inspired by famouses Waka (japanese poetry) each of them marked by a pillar.

Once inside we had to choose one of the many paths the gardens offer, so we moved toward the central lake.　As you can see, when in the garden the city outside is almost invisible and it seems to have reached a completely different and quiet place.

The lake was populateted by a great number of turtles and carps. In the water you could see a rock called "the sleeping dragon"
A more close picture of the lake. the buildings far away seems to be swallowed by the thick vegetation.

There was really many carp! All of them were quite big. Carp are very loved in Japan and they are often treated like puppies and kept in private gardens. Some of them can come to cost some thousands of dollars. In the bottom Photo you can see swimming carp in the Rikugien lake.

In the garden there was a lot of little waterfalls pouring water in the main lake

Along the way you can find a stopping place where you can have tea in the middle of the garden.

By there you can see the lake and the sleeping dragon rock. Right there on the right of the boat.

Here and there you can find one of those 5 meter tall lanterns. Even if hand made it doesn't waste the landscape.

Finally we reached the big cherry tree. As you can see it is really big and it's a special variety since it's branches are similar to the ones of a willow.

Yuki under the great cherry tree, too bad it was not in blossom... it would certanly had been the best.

The cherry tree was actually very close to the exit but we went the opposite way. In the bottom photo you can see a stone carved with Japanese kanji, the translation is "Rikugien Garden, renowned for is landscape.

For today I close here, but wait for me in the next and last episode of this trip.
Ciao!!

.::Yuki_Sakuma::.

Read more about our Travel to Japan

how-much does a trip to japan cost? | Kyoto | Japanese dinner | Japan Temple: Fushimi Inari Taisha | Japan Temple: Kiyomizudera | Japan travel in Kyoto | visiting Akihabara | Shibuya and Shinjuku | Ginza AppleStore | Tokyo Tower | Asakusa Sensoji Temple | Japanese Garden: Rikugien | Mandarake Manga store