白鳥庭園

Shirotomi Garden in Nagoya is close to Atsuta Shrine and the Nagoya Congress Center.



Opened in 1991, the 3.7ha Shirotomi Tei-en is a modern Japanese garden representing the countryside of the surrounding areas of Nagoya city. The mound in the south-west corner of the garden represents Mt. Ondake, located on the borders of Nagano and Gifu Prefectures and  the second highest volcano in Japan at 3,067m. The stream running from the mound represents the Kiso River in Gifu.



The garden contains a traditional teahouse, Seiu-tei, built in the Sukiya style by carpenters from Kyoto. Other features of this beautiful, strolling garden include a perfect, turf lawn, traditional wooden bridges and a number of waterfalls.

There's a cafe for visitors to refresh themselves and contemplate a garden that seems a million miles from the hustle and bustle of downtown Nagoya. Can you spot the toad/frog in the image below?



Shirotomi Garden
Atsuta Nishi-machi 2-5
Atsuta-ku
Nagoya
Tel: 052 681 8928
Admission: 300 yen; Yearly pass 1,200 yen
Hours: 9am-4.30pm; closed Monday and the 3rd Wednesday of the month.
Access: A 10 minute walk from Jingu-Nishi Station on the Meijo Line

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ゲリラガーデニング

Guerrilla gardening in Japan has a much longer history than the recently coined, hip term on the net, so beloved of London town's right on, Green activists.


Since the devastation of Japan's cities at the end of the Second World War, Japanese people have been quietly cultivating any spare patch of earth to grow vegetables and more recently flowers and shrubs to beautify their cramped urban spaces.


Riverbanks and sidewalks in Japan are particular favorites of guerrilla gardeners, who take any opportunity to green the few available areas of arable land in Japan's teeming towns and cities.

Most sidewalks in Japan are beautified by local residents who plant flowers and place pot plants in the space between the sidewalk kerb and the road.


Riverbanks have also been turned into ad hoc allotments by the people who live in a neighborhood close to one of Japan's many rivers or streams.

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由志園

Yuushien Garden is a beautiful Japanese walking garden with restaurants on the small island of Daikonshima in the Nakaumi lagoon near Matsue. Famous for its peonies, the garden has plants flowering in all four seasons. May is the time to see peonies en mass.

A classic Japanese circuit garden with pine trees, carp-filled ponds, island and bridges; there are beautiful camellias in spring, hydrangeas and iris in summer, red maples in autumn and, of course, snow-covered scenes in winter.



Yuushien Garden has 3 restaurants (Tel: 0852 76 2255 open -11am-4pm) "Zen", "Momiji" and "Shobu" which offer a variety of tasty set courses made from local ingredients: maguro donburi, beef donburi, soba noodles, eel, tempura, seafood. Ginseng, a Daikonshima specialty is used in many dishes.



There is also a shop selling local Japanese food delicacies including peony jam, rice crackers (senbei) and Japanese confectionary.

Yuushien Garden
1260-2 Yatsuka-cho
Matsue City
Shimane
Admission to the garden: 600 yen
Hours: 8.30am-5.30pm



Daikonshima is connected to the mainland by bridges. Buses from Matsue Station take about 25 minutes. The nearest station is JR Sakaiminato and then a bus.

The images for this article were kindly summitted by a reader and if you have an attraction in Japan you would like to see presented on this site please contact us with the details and any photos you may have, we'd be happy to publish them.

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栗林公園

Ritsurin Park in Takamatsu is one of Japan's finest and largest strolling gardens.

Constructed over a period of a hundred years in the Edo Period, the garden combines the traditional features of most Japanese gardens of its type: 'borrowed scenery,' lakes, bridges, tea pavilions and mini-mountains.



Built for the enjoyment of the successive ruling lords of the area, the garden was designed to be appreciated in all seasons of the year.

After the fall of the feudal system, the park has been open to the public since 1875.



As for the varied flora of the park, there are plum and cherry blossoms in spring, irises and lotuses in summer, maples in autumn and camellias in winter.

My own favorites are these ancient cycads presented to the Matsudaira family (then the rulers of Takamatsu) by the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain. Satsuma at the time held the trading rights to the then independent Ryukyu Islands, which now make up modern-day Okinawa Prefecture. The plants are now over 300 years old and are protected by the prefecture.

Access

Ritsurin Koen
Tel: 087 833 7411

Take a bus from JR Takamatsu Station.

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