Saturday, October 29, 2011

Good morning all,
Jeff again, with a post about one of the most famous attractions of Kumamoto.....Suizen-ji Park, one of the top three public gardens in all of Japan.  Cool spot.  Lotsa stuff to see.....please allow me to give you a brief tour

The park was started in 1636 and the design is supposed to mimic scenery along the road between Tokyo and Kyoto.
The trees are mostly evergreen, and rigorously pruned.  This style is called cloud-pruning, niwaki, in japanese.  Everything that could hold still long enough was pruned in this style--except the cherry trees.  Cherries are always allowed to grow just however they want.

This little hill is no accident, it's supposed to represent Mount Fuji, just outside of Tokyo.  Erin wondered how they cut the grass....I suggested goats (yagi) but it seems a lawn mower was used.....hmm.  The hill is about 25ft tall, and really has a cool feel about it.


The pond is really big (beeeg) and has lots of koi in it.  They are big fat happy koi, and the gold ones represent money, so the more gold ones you have is better.
The little boy, all of 3, and his grandmother were feeding the fish.  My japanese is limited, but he cleared asked them "oshi-des-ka?"------was that delicious? Adorable.

Fun day, cool garden.

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