Today is Greenery Day, the first of the official Golden Week holidays. We got a jump on it by strolling through Koishikawa Korakuen this weekend.
This is the oldest park in Tokyo and was laid out by a Chinese landscaper for the Tokugawa clan in 1629. It’s full of water and bridges, minature mountains, shrines and all of the wonderful variety of plants and trees that make Japanese gardens so enjoyable.
And it’s a short ten minute walk from our apartment. What a treasure. From inside the garden, you can view the local skyline–Tokyo Dome sports complex hovers like a giant cloud above the tops of the trees and the Tokyo Dome Hotel tower shows its profile.
The name, Korakuen, comes from a Chinese poem and means “a pleasure afterward.” The poem, as translated in the garden’s brochure, is oddly discouraging. Be the first to take the world’s trouble to heart, be the last to enjoy the world’s pleasure. Doesn’t that mean you’ll be the one to shoulder the world’s troubles the longest?
