Wednesday 10 December 2014

Farewell to Shinjuku Gyoen Garden

I first saw this garden on 1st December last year. This year I was 10 days later and initially I thought I'd missed all the beautiful autumn foliage.
Bare Trees in Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
Not that bare trees don't have their own kind of beauty, but I wasn't in the mood for a Tim Burton kind of stroll.
Bare Tree in Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
I consoled myself that there were still the lakes to look at and headed off for the 'Japanese Garden' (which does make sense in a Japanese park because some of it was formal french - whatever that is - and so on). It turns out they'd kept a little bit of the autumn colours for me.
Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
View of the Chinese Pavillion
Red Japanese Maple Leaves
There is also a huge greenhouse on site. It's so humid inside there are lots of signs about dripping condensation falling on you.
Palms inside the Greenhouse
Pond inside the Greenhouse
They had a special display of orchids.
Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
These unfailingly remind me of the singing flower scene in the proper Alice in Wonderland film. I adore that film and that scene in particular.
Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
Definitely a bossy woman in a bonnet telling someone off (probably me)!

The gardens in Japan have been such an amazing resource and I wish I'd got into exploring them earlier last Spring. I told myself in the summer that I'd be able to go back to them in 2015 but that was when we thought we'd be here til May so now I won't have that chance. Here we are just a week from leaving and there is still a fair bit to get done. But then we may come back here to live one day. Pooch loves it here and if it weren't for the language barrier I would too. I just need to start learning it now, then I'll be ready in about ten years or so!


2 comments:

jan said...

Thank you Alex for sharing all these beautiful photos. xo jan

Vanessa Barilli said...

Dear, I have a Brazilian blog about japanese culture named 'cinesakura' and i've linked your post to one of my articles about Shinjuku Gyoen National Park, on which i recomend readers to see your park pictures. I hope you don't mind. This is the link to my blog article: http://wp.me/p2Yx74-qQ. Sorry about my poor english! Regards! Vanessa Barilli.