Gardens

I remember Tokyo being spoken of as the largest population of any city in the world but I didn't think that was still the case. It is. Wikipedia lists cities by UN 2018 data (see List of largest cities) with Tokyo top of the list with over 37 million, ie ~1.5 x Australia.  Tokyo also has a superb train-cum-Metro system (and the busiest train station, Shinjuku; ~3.6m people pd!) but still it is time-consuming to travel around this town.  So our visit is limited but we saw a lovely traditional Japanese house, Kyu Asakura, and we especially marvelled at its garden.  But today we visited the Nezu Museum, somewhat a decorative arts museum. Its displays were informative and charming and gratifyingly small and well labelled.  Galleries covered paintings of summer and autumn (Hiroshiga+), Buddhist art and ancient Chinese bronzes (~1500BCE+), shades of white in ceramics and the end of the year in tea ceremonies.  Quite a fascinating list.  But Nezu Museum also has a garden, larger and more detailed and probably older than that of the Kyu Asakura house.  I am not a garden goer but this was deeply beautiful and significantly educative.  The care taken is obvious although discrete.  The paths, the statuary, the pruning, the choices of species, the buildings and water were all a part of a most stunning environment.  I walked through with eyes aghast and camera in action and every photo was a thing of calm beauty.  Some drizzle just added to it all.  Now I think I understand a Japanese garden. Look at the pics and marvel.

Kyu Asakura house and Nezu Museum are on open display in Tokyo.  They both have wonderful gardens.