Once I got out of my immediate district (due to my school PTA sponsoring a parent-teacher social event at Yoyogi Park), I got some of my exploration urges back. Since it was still summer weather at this time, I decided that the first areas to explore would be some gardens. While overall my trips to different gardens were okay, perhaps they would have seemed nicer if done at different times of the year to see a wider variety of flowers. I know that Japan is known for its cherry blossoms, so I’m already planning places to try and see this.

Anyway, onto the gardens.

The first garden I visited was Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens. This was the biggest of the parks I visited. While there were certain trees and shrubs abounding, one of the garden areas contained roses, but since I went in late summer or early autumn, they were already gone. However, I was able to enjoy some other scenic plant life. It would have been better not to go so close to noon, but it was my first real outing by myself, and I just wanted to get through my list of sites.

Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens

The next stop was the Imperial Palace Gardens. My mistake before coming here was not realizing that the majority of the palace grounds were not actually open to the public. Apparently, the descendants of the royal family still live on the palace grounds and only allow visitors in to see the area at two times of the year: January 2nd (for a New Year’s Greetings event) and December 23rd (the emperor’s birthday). There also isn’t that much left of the original Edo castle except for the moat, gates, and wall (oh, and a few guard houses). I was disappointed and quickly becoming irritated since it was getting so hot, and I couldn’t figure out where to go since Google Maps was showing me pathways that didn’t seem to exist. But I tried to get a few snapshots anyway.

The next visit to a garden had to happen the following weekend, as I couldn’t take the heat and humidity any longer.

The second time I ventured out, it was to Hamarikiyu Gardens. The day started off okay weather-wise; however, the forecast called for rain later on (this was due to remnants of the passing typhoon). I had hoped that I could beat the rain, but eventually I was proven wrong.

Inside of this park, there are places that were used for duck hunting.

After spending far too long trying to dodge the bouts of rain, I finally had to give in and make a run for it. Even with all the time spent calculating the best time to run for it, I still ended up getting soaked. Of all the days, I decided not to bring my umbrella!

The last attempt at seeing a garden was several days later at Hibiya Park, which is not far from the Imperial Palace Gardens. This time the weather was dry and hot, but not as hot as earlier at Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens (although it was hazy). One thing I noticed and enjoyed about here is the number of trees with long, twisting, snaking branches.

In the wide, open central clearing, there was some kind of market festival happening. While glancing through the vendors, I came upon a woman selling wine. Since it was hot, I decided to spend too much on a glass of (chilled) apple wine and a cookie from another vendor.

Although I’m happy that I made it to all of these gardens, I may be gardened out for a while. There are other gardens yet to be explored, but I think I will wait until there is more foliage. The real showdown will be later in spring, when I’m trying to find an area to see the annual cherry blossoms blooming without the hoards of other people fawning over them. But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

In my next post, I will showcase other places I’ve wandered through around Tokyo. Until next time, bye-bye for now.