The Beauty of Shirotori Garden
I’ve been watching my google photo screen saver a bit lately. I have all of my photos from Japan in it, so instead of just watching lines race around the screen I get the fun of trips down memory lane when I watch it. Hey, sometimes just watching my screen saver is more fun than what I would actually be doing on my computer. However, I finally realized I’ve only ever posted a few pictures from Japan!
So, for this post I will talk a bit about Shirotori Garden along with some of my favorite pictures of it.
First off, the garden is in Nagoya a short walk from Atsuta Shrine (one of the ‘Big Three’ which I will post on later). It is also right next to Shirotori Park and the government center.
Overall the area of Shirotori Garden is small. If you looked at it on the map you would probably skip it… Don’t! Once you get through the gates it is anything but small and full of beauty. It is also in a rather suburban district, so despite occasionally being able to see the city over the walls it is very quiet.
Now… The picture on the left. They have koi at the garden. These are not your average koi, most were easily the length of my forearm and a good number were bigger than that. They actually snap at the ducks that land on the water, and I feel even more sorry for the turtles that get to live with them. It was amazing to watch them swarm near people tossing in food pellets.
The trees were also amazing bright shades of green. It probably helped that these pictures were taken mid-spring, so everything was in full bloom.
The number of flowers everywhere was also incredible. If I remember correctly, there were about 5 areas to the garden and each had a careful picked assortment of flowering plants and trees and tastefully matched colors. Leave it to the Japanese to tell an story and create a painting with a garden. I was lucky enough to catch the flowers to the right while they were still there. If I had gone a week or so later I probably would have missed them. These particular trees were also probably some of the few that had not filled out with leaves yet.
But all of these trees and fish were really just the very beginning of the garden.
The majority of the Shirotori is based around the stream that goes through it.
The stream is definitely man-made, but with the amount of shore growth they added and the attention to detail with winding it around the garden made it feel very natural. At times it was right next to the path, at others it flowed rather far away. They also made the two cross at a few points to put in pretty little bridges. I’m sure during the original design of the park there was one guy on the board who really loved bridges and made sure he got at least a few thrown in.
Many of the sections of the garden are also dived vertically. So there were a few very pretty little waterfalls. It also added to the natural feeling of the whole place as it mimicked the mountainous terrain of japan without actually forcing you to hike.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little adventure through one of the gardens I loved! I know I haven’t written nearly enough about the sites I saw while in Japan, so look forward to a number of posts that will give you my photos along with a little writing about what I saw.
Wow… I always liked Japanese gardens and this is one of the examples why I like them so much… I have to go the Japan to see their original gardens.
Susan – thanks for stopping by!
They really are beautiful. Unfortunately going to Japan is not one the cheaper vacations or adventures. But I would go again in a heartbeat if I had the resources.
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