This Garden Rocks: Kiyosumi Teien, Tokyo

Yet another beautiful Japanese garden in Tokyo can be found on the east side of the city, a little bit south of Ryogoku, where sumo wrestling matches can be watched. Kiyosumi Garden is laid out with a large lake in the center and one main path surrounding it. There are four islands in the lake, two of which are accessible by bridges. Paths lead to and along the water's edge, where it's possible to see fish and turtles poking their heads up for food or sunning themselves on the rocks. The two other islands sometimes have birds.

The garden is a nice place to go for a stroll, of course. While traveling around the lake, visitors are treated to several views, but the highlight of Kiyosumi is the rocks. The original owners of the garden collected interesting and beautiful rocks from across Japan and they remained when the garden was opened to the public in the 1930s. They are numbered and named, as you'll see in the photos below.
 As the sign says, the gardens are open 9 AM to 5 PM, and admission is only 150 yen. The entrance is just south of Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station on the Oedo and Hanzomon subway lines. Due to its location it's somewhat isolated, but the subway lines will get you there without transfers from Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ueno, Roppongi, and Asakusa (SkyTree/Oshiage).

Here are my photos of the park.










































3 comments:

  1. Wow... that garden is so beautiful. I love going to Japanese tea gardens in different cities I travel to. Hopefully one day, I'll make it to one that's actually in Japan.

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  2. My first Japanese garden was the one in SF's Golden Gate Park. As a child, I loved the half-moon bridge, but now I can appreciate the garden as a whole! But I don't think I've been to any other Japanese gardens in the States.

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  3. There are several around the Bay Area and last summer during my trip to Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver I went to several. Most of them are small... but beautiful nonetheless.

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