Having a Stroll in Ritsurin Garden (October 2020)

Yes, I know, I’ve been awfully quiet here lately. You know, it’s the usual excuse: too many things to do, not enough time to do all. Work, family, of course the virus. It’s causing more work which causes more fatigue, which also means less time and energy for blogging, I’m sure it’s the same for everyone.

Add to that the fact that I’ve been learning to shoot and edit videos lately. It’s a fun and fascinating activity, but also quite time consuming. Hopefully, it’ll be worth it eventually. And by the way, don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel if you haven’t done so already. It has very similar content to the one you can find on the blog here. You won’t see me making a fool of myself in front of a camera much, but rather beautiful and hopefully interesting sights, except that they move instead of being static like here.

But today I’m back and I have a few minutes to post something, so why not show you a few pictures of my latest visit to Ritsurin Garden last Saturday?

I hadn’t been there in months, mostly because of the pandemic, but nowadays, also because of the pandemic, it’s as beautiful as it’s ever been. You can see it the way it was designed to be seen, that is with just a few visitors here and there, not busloads of tourists (there are really only locals visiting these days).

In terms of plants and flowers, this time of the year is not the most interesting (summer flowers are gone, red leaves are still green), but the goal of the visit was mostly to spend time outside with the kids and go see the new koi. I’m not totally sure that I had seen them before (maybe once?).

I’ll return soon, when the fall colors are all over the park, with all my cameras and I hope to make something memorable for you.

In the meantime, enjoy:

A small tip for the next time you visit the garden. You know the small (artificial) waterfall against the hill? People always go as close as possible to watch it and take pictures… and then find it pretty disappointing. Well, it’s because it’s not meant to be seen from that spot.
As you may know Ritsurin Garden was entirely designed with the purpose of being “seen” and the waterfall is not exception. It was designed for being seen from the “waiting area” in the tea house near it. The place where guests have to wait until the ceremony is ready to start. And the main reason for guests having to wait a little while before the ceremony starts wasn’t bad time management. It was to make sure the guests have the time to enjoy the view around the tea house before entering the building. This is the purpose of the waterfall, to act as a background piece for that very view pictured above.

I guess that is all for today. Hopefully, I’ll return soon with more content. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and stay safe.