Beautiful Mother Nature Pt.1: Japanese Gardens

Come one, come all! On today's exciting new post of Mozi's Abroad Adventures we will reliving some of the most beautiful scenes I've ever experienced. For this post and the next (and possibly a third one later on down the road), I'll be blogging about my time spent surrounded by the gorgeous greenery of Japan. For this specific post, I'll reminisce on my trips to two different Japanese-style gardens. はじめましょう！

Tokugawa-en (徳川園)

My first experience with a Japanese-style garden was my solo trip to Tokugawaen. This trip was originally sparked by a reccomendation to visit the Tokugawa Bijutsukan (Tokugawa Art Museum); then I was told there was also a garden right next to the museum, I instantly decided upon going! I chose the following Sunday to go, planning on going with some friends after our morning plans to meet up with our newfound Japanese friends from Yabacho. Unfortunately, everyone else either had plans or decided to stay with our Yabacho friends and accompany them to their planned picnic. So I decided I'll go by myself, why not. Welp, unfortunately for them, they totally missed out. I got to Tokugawaen and asked the very nice lady behind the counter how much for a student ticket and she told me it was 900 yen but the combo ticket for admittance to both the garden and the museum was 1600 yen (roughly $8 and $14, respectively). I said that sounds great, so cheap! She asked for my student card and I shuffled through my wallet to pull it out. When I gave it to her she looked and said happily "or, you're a Nanzan Daigaku student?!", I said yes. She told me Nanzan students have free admittance to the museum! I'm sure you can imagine my happiness at that exact moment. She told me if I go to the museum first, then return to the garden with the ticket I will get a reduced price. In the end, my admittance fee to both the garden and the museum was 200 yen (barely $2). My initial plan was to go to the garden first, since I didn't want to lose the sunlight that was radiating that day, but I have never been to give up anything priced "free". In the end it totally worked out, check out some of the shots I got.

Beautiful lake was one of the first things you came across after entering the garden.

I really liked this photo because of the sun flare and the reflection on the side of the boat.

Asked a fish to pose for me, got it!

Some really nice mini falls.

Kenroku-en (兼六園)

Next up on Mozi's Japanese garden trips is Kenrokuen, one of the most beautiful and well-known gardens in Japan. This garden was a part of our IES trip to Kanazawa and I am beyond grateful we stopped here. Although the entire garden wasn't completely in bloom, it was still most definitely an amazing experience. Kenrokuen had spacious tea houses, large waterfalls, cherry blossom trees (unfortunately not in bloom), and giant statues. The garden grounds were extremely well kept, so much that groundskeepers were performing their various duties during the park's open hours. This garden also had a shrine among its many interesting sights to behold. In comparison to Tokugawaen, this garden was vastly larger, although, in my opinion, choosing one to be more beautiful than the other seems almost impossible. Here's some of my favorite pictures from my time spent in this beautiful Japanese garden.

Asked a butterfly to pose for me, got it!

River that flowed through the majority of the garden.

Japanese style lantern with waterfall in the background.

Statue of a famous Prince Yamato Takeru

Japanese tea house.