Hama-Rikyu Garden - History and Beauty Combined

This Garden was originally part of the estate of an Edo period Shogun who ruled in the 1650s. The main pool is tidal and is still fed by the seawater of the bay through two sluice gates. There used to be a villa here and it is where the Shogan would go if he wanted to show off his boats to visitors - in fact it is still used as a dock for one of the river boat services that run in Tokyo. The Emperor gifted the Garden to the city in the 1950s and the tea houses, destroyed during WW2, were very carefully rebuilt in the original style. The garden is now surrounded by high rise buildings (in particular the Conran Hotel) and has a stonking great dual carriageway along one side. Inside it is peaceful and idyllic though. It costs a whopping £2 to get in and I easily spent 2 hours there - I would have spent longer if I'd brought something to eat. Now, I'll just leave you with the photos.

Those last two are the front and side view of a 300 year old pine. It's height is only 11ft but that main branch coming out at 90 degrees is 18 feet long and the breadth of the branches coming off it was, I dunno, 30 feet maybe? I should also explain that the kimono couple weren't just mooning about in the garden like that. They had a photographer and two attendants with them and were taking wedding photos. I thought I'd just nip in and capture the moment and help spread the love.

Unfortunately I went to the garden without any sunscreen on because it was 100% cloud cover.

Not my finest assumption.

Ow.

I am now hugely sunburnt in a stripey bagpuss-esque painful style. The thick straps of my vest top are stark white but annoyingly so too are where the lanyard around my neck lay. So I am literally striped. In fact, here's a photo Pooch took of me blogging on the sofa.

I tried an internet remedy of socaking a towel in black and tea and then draping it over you. I ended up smelling of very very strong tea and it didn't help. A friend has suggested Aloe Vera gel which thankfully they do have in Japan (at least, I think it is aloe vera gel. It's possible I'm about to smear myself in sea urchin juice or something similar)  so I have some in the fridge which I'll apply shortly.