Of Japanese Gardens

While planning our trip, we intended to pop by Isuien Garden in Nara. When we went there, we realised that there was another garden next-door which was "free for foreign tourists" so we decided to do a quick one at Yoshikien Garden instead ;) Other than being penny pinchers, it was almost closing time so didn't make sense to do 600yen a pop and we were rather tired and not up for walking around the expanse of Isuien Garden. To Yoshikien Garden, it was!

A flight of steps greeted us by the ticket counter so definitely not a baby friendly option there. The friendly staff agreed to let us park the pram while we strolled around the garden. There's just something about Japanese Gardens, the horticulture is always fairy-tale perfect and enchanting and the place is so magnificently manicured. You know what I'm talking about - that crooked tree with perfectly round bushes and just the right spot of colour.

Would have been a lovely shot of us, if only the iPhone timer wasn't so sucky. Bah.

Love this shot! The 2 of them are smiling so widely :) Must have been sharing some secret joke before this. Heidi - No secrets from Mama!!

 

Unfortunately the tea ceremony room was closed, so we couldn't step in. This is kinda what a traditional Japanese house layout would be!

Other perfunctory shots that we took, to amuse ourselves and also because the surroundings were too gorgeous to ignore :) Made us trigger-happy!

This shot is the FUNNIEST of the lot! See the sign on the right, that's the sign for Yoshikien which we went to instead of the one on the left (Isuien) . Anyway, from the Yoshikien Garden, we could peek into the Isuien Garden as it was across a small drainage. While it did look even more amazing and with more effort gone into erecting those structures and perfecting the landscape, we were satisfied with our surprise free attraction :) L.o.v.e. Japanese Gardens. Think I might make a trip to our local version soon. The last time I went was yonks ago!