So after the Fish market adventure which I told you about in the post previous to this one...we headed to the Hama-Riku Gardens. We were going to do the garden and the river cruise after, but daylight and time was beginning to run short, so we opted to just do the cruise and come back to the garden another day later this month, when the cherry blossoms are hopefully blooming??
We entered the garden and got our tickets but not understanding what was going on, we bought garden tickets and then found we had to buy cruise tickets once we walked through part of the garden area. Oh well, turned into... No big deal a few minutes later once we passed the HUGE 300 yr old pine tree which was planted in 1709 and was being held up with those wooden supports like many old pine trees are here in Japan. We then crossed over the inner moat and was taken a back with the sight of a football field or more in size of the fluorescent yellow rape seed flowers in full bloom. WOW!! What sight for our eyes was that.
Then, it only got better as we passed by a little wooden shrine and entered the plum "UME" grove which found many a tree only partly dressed in their full blossoms. There were people every where, each trying to capture the best up close blossom shot that they could. A few ladies were dressed in kimonos, so of course that made the atmosphere more authentic and exciting.
When we arrived at the Water bus pier we quickly bought our tickets as the boat was docked and waiting to leave again soon. So we quickly ran to board the ferry for our Sumida River cruise. Once on the boat I glanced at the garden map and realized we just walked down the side path and had a whole park with 4 different ponds, islands and bridges to come back and explore either later this month and/or when my friends Donna and Michelle are here in mid April. Looking forward to that.
We exited through the Tsukijigawa canal gate and then took a left and went north up the river. It was overcast, cloudy and a bit chilly in the wind, but you have to stand outside on the upper deck to get good photos,right? As we floated along, we passed under 13 different bridges in a rainbow of colors and different types of architecture. We saw fire boats practicing with their water hoses we think on the river, passed many canals going off in either direction and with lots of different kinds of boats docked along the sides of each. Now that would be fun to go exploring up each of the canals branching of the main river.
The river wove back and forth like the shape of a backward S and we stopped at numerous docks along the way to let folks on and off the boat. You could see the orange Eiffel like looking Tokyo Tower in the distant skyline as we rounded one bend and on the other side if the river when we got up near Asakusa Temple was a dock full of people waiting on a pier decorated with hot pink banners and silk cherry blossom bunches of flowers. We then got off the boat and walked back down that part of the river boardwalk which was a walkway with a canopy of Cherry tress which will be in full bloom the last week of March. Hopefully we can get up here again, to see the beauty before we head off to Thailand. Of course the week we are going to be in Thai country is the FULL blossom Cherry week here in Japan. Darn! :-( I am keeping my fingers crossed that there will be enough cherry trees in early bloom so we get a good feel for what it is all about before we go southwest for our Thai adventures and exploration.
As we made our way back south along the river we crossed over to the other side and stopped and saw a few more neighborhood shrines and temples along the way. As we were entering a neighborhood park we passed by a bunch of old men chatting and drinking sum sake. They were very happy and obliged me for a photo... Kumpai! We had packed some fruits and veggies,rice crackers and cheese from home so we stopped in the garden and had a bite to eat on the rocks along the edge of the pond. We were quickly joined by many a duck in colors of white, brown, black, some aggressive pigeons, sea gulls and some little brown chickadee type birds. They were not afraid of us at all and one pigeon actually flew up and sat on my knee..no photo :-( (camera in purse and my hands full of food).
We finished eating and left some very unhappy birds as all the walking and fresh air had left us so very hungry we did not drop a crumb or morsel and we ate every bit of food we had in our bag. Guess that was just hour devours, as we were still hungry and wanted to eat something more before boarding the train for home. I told CJ we had no meat at home and so we opted to eat out and CJ had pork cutlets and I had a black pig rice curry dish. It was all very tasty.
Back on the train and home bound we were. Stopped at he bakery for a sweet dessert but it was all picked over and only meat type pastries were left by the many shoppers on Motomachi Shopping Street. There is the Charming Sale going on 2/24-3/1 and so the streets was loaded with people and there pups.
Once back home, I guess we worked up more hunger sitting in the train,and so we ate yet again. We enjoyed some popcorn while we watched American Idol. It was Hollywood Week and we did see that Casey Carlson from EP made the next cut, but were sad we did not get to see her sing. I heard through the EP Idol grapevine that they think she sung she Tattoo by previous Idol winner Jordan Sparks?
We were then off to bed and were looking forward to dinner with Shohei on Sunday night.
More about Sunday and our visit
Karla and CJ
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