Japanese Gardens: Part Ichi

Today's post is the next in a series on Japanese gardens (actually this is really part ni, since we already visited Kiyosumi a few weeks ago). These are pics from one of our favorite neighborhood gardens, Shin-Edogawa, which is just across the river and a few blocks over. If you look closely at the first picture, you can see a bunch of turtles along the waterline - this seems to be their favorite sunning spot. You can walk right up to the water and the koi immdiately swim over and jockey for position for food. One particularly cool thing about this spot is the way it has various elevations, with paths throughout and plenty of plants and trees to buffer the sound. You really feel like you are out of the city - it is so magically quiet you can hear a leaf drop. There are great variations on handmade bamboo fences, stone paths, and bridges, with multiple areas that invite you to stop, look, sit, think, and be. Overall, the garden leaves the wonderful impression of being very carefully designed and cared for, while at the same time feeling extremely "natural" - a tricky thing to pull off, but something the Japanese seem to have mastered. There are also two cats that live in the garden and they're fun to watch - they like to menace the turtles. They have little bobtails, like many of the cats we see around. Often the garden is more or less empty, except for the gardeners who carefully sweep the paths, trim the bushes, and keep everything looking ship-shape. Green predominates, with a few irises, hydrangeas, azaleas, and yellow bushy flowers I can't yet identify, placed just so for extra color. Stay tuned and we'll take you down the Tokyo garden path again.

Irises, Baby Dolls, & Conveyor-Belt Sushi

So on Sunday, we decided to head back to Meiji Shrine south of Shinjuku to see if the iris garden was finally in bloom. Atari! (We were probably about a week early ... "Pete the Impatient One" strikes again.) These just might be the most coddled irises on the planet, fussed over meticulously by a team of crack gardeners (see picture). It was definitely worth the visit! Here are a few more pictures.




On our way across the bridge toward Harajuku, we ran the gauntlet of "Cos-play-zoku," which are kids who dress up in outlandish outfits and pose for pictures. I'm sure they're the subject of some sociologist's life-work, but they're also just funny to gawk at. Little Bo'Peeps here didn't seem to mind posing. If it weren't raining torrentially, I'm sure the scene would have been even kookier.

Since this is Japan, it was soon time to eat. In the mood for a sushi snack, we found a kaiten sushi shop. Kaiten = revolving. I think you can find restaurants like this one in the US, too, but they're rare. The plates are color-coded by price, so it's easy to keep track of the size of the hole you're digging yourself into. You just grab whatever looks good as it floats by on the conveyor belt (but stay away from the shrimp ... everyone else seems to?!). We both ate well for under $9, so I think we did better than most. There was a guy next to us with a Dr. Seuss-ish stack of empties he'd have to account for. It could have been us! Coolest discovery: the self-serve bowl-o green tea powder and our very own spout dispensing piping hot water. Look for something similar in the restaurant we may one day open.

Zen Craft

Weekend before last, we visited a couple of museums on the grounds of the Imperial Palace with our friends Amy and Eli (Eli is in the program with Pete and Amy is doing a ceramics residency in Shigaraki). Unfortunately I didn't write down the names of the artists, but on the bright side they did let us take pictures after Pete got an official "can take pictures" sticker. After we wandered around the grounds a bit and were eyed suspiciously through binoculars by the guards standing outside the very imposing gate leading to the Palace, we went inside the Bijutsukan Kogeikan (Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art) and saw some incredible pieces. They did an excellent job on presentation, as there was plenty of breathing room around each of the pieces and the rooms were smallish, which perfectly matched the intimate scale of the work. After you see the exhibition there is a place to mark your program using a stamp and ink pad - a nice way to get viewers involved while encouraging you to keep the handouts as a memento.

Next we went to the Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan (National Museum of Modern Art) for a backwards time-trip (we started on the wrong floor) through 20th century art, focusing on Japanese art with an occasional George Grosz or Francis Bacon thrown in for comparison. Later that night we ended up at an Izakaya just up the street. At these places, you order small dishes, like tapas, so it is a nice way to sample different foods.

Bright Lights, Big City

Here's a quick hop through the heart of Shinjuku at night - wild sensory overload in every direction. It is amazing this controlled chaos even functions, but somehow it does with Japanese efficiency. Pictures don't begin to convey the experience of it, where your first impulse is to look up, but of course if you do, expect to be plowed over by the teaming mass of humanity moving through the neon maze.

Like Times Square on steroids, the east side of Shinjuku has giant video screens on almost every block, crazy sounds, lights and music(?) blasting from pachinko palors, and people, seemingly talking to themselves, and thrusting ad-covered packages of tissues at passersby.

There are actually a few trees (see pic below with Pete -he is holding library books we checked out from the branch nearby, with a good selection of english language books). Also, watch for an upcoming episode on Shinjuku-gyoen - a peaceful expanse of green that somehow coexists with all this, just a few blocks away.