{"id":34806,"date":"2023-12-17T18:41:23","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T10:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=34806"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:56:24","slug":"day-10-tokyo-koishikawa-korakuen-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2023\/12\/17\/day-10-tokyo-koishikawa-korakuen-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 10 @ Tokyo – Koishikawa Korakuen Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 10 and our last full day in Tokyo before we head off to Nikko for the third segment of our trip. We didn’t realize this during the initial planning of the itinerary, but there is a garden situated beside Tokyo Dome City and thus an easy 5 minute walk from our hotel. We would also be visiting Rikugien Garden already on Day 10, but upon seeing the sunny \u2014 if also chilly \u2014 weather today, we decided to squeeze in a visit to the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden<\/strong> in the morning too after a breakfast at Excelsior Cafe (just opposite Suidobashi Station, and a convenient 3 minute walk from our hotel).<\/p>\n

According to the venue’s notes, the garden was originally built by the founder of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa Clan, and was completed during the reign of the second domain lord, Mitsukuni. The style of the garden is traditional Japanese, with ponds and man-made hills centering on the pond. While building the garden, Lord Mitsukuni invited advisors from China, and their input is reflected in the garden too.<\/p>\n

Importantly, this garden is not normally visited by tourists, and at the time we visited at 9AM, there were perhaps just half a dozen other persons also visiting. The admission fee is 300 yen, while Peter entered for free.<\/p>\n

Pictures!<\/p>\n

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Entering into the garden from the East gate, we see the Kara-mon, the Chinese-style gate. The gate was previously the official entrance into the garden, but was burnt down during World War II and restored in 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A stone bridge beside the Kara-mon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Another view of the pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Just further beyond is the Dai-Sensui, the central pond in this garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Spotted a heron in the distance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There were few visitors about this Sunday morning when we visited.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Catching reflections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Looking down at the garden from the man-made hill’s vantage point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Engetsu-kyo, or Full Moon Bridge. The name was given as the reflected shape of the bridge on the surface of the water would make it look like a full moon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Lovely garden!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Steps that lead back to the Kara-mon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is by no means the most beautiful garden I’ve seen in the country: I think the Okayama Korakuen still has that distinction, and for sheer elegance it’d be the Adachi Museum of Art \u2014 I visited these two in 2019 and just recently in September this year respectively. But importantly, the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden is uncrowded and not along the path of most international visitors. So, if you’re in the vicinity, it’d be worth a look!<\/p>\n

Continued in the next post: our visit to Rikugien Garden!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 10 and our last full day in Tokyo before we head off to Nikko for the third segment of our trip. We didn’t realize this during the initial planning of the itinerary, but there is a garden situated beside<\/p>\n

Read More Day 10 @ Tokyo – Koishikawa Korakuen Garden<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[677],"class_list":["post-34806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-chubu-kanto-japan-2023","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/blog-2023-japan-day-10-20231217_090602.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38266,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34806\/revisions\/38266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}