Shinjuku Gyoen Garden

Appreciation for beautiful red and blue flowers.

Today Kim and I explored Shinjuku’s Gyoen Garden. It is a very large park, and very beautiful. It is the beginning of September, but the park is still incredibly green. There are several things to look at in the park, and signs in both Japanese and English guide visitors along meandering paths to whatever they wish to see.

The traditional Japanese garden.

We first stopped at the greenhouse, which was more humid that it was outside (it was very humid today!). My favorite part of the greenhouse was the waterfall, and since I had my Nikon with me, I had fun playing around with shutter speed while taking photos of the water falling. Using a faster shutter speed means snatching a much smaller moment in time (say, 1/2000th of a second) than a slower shutter speed (like 1/20th of a second), and results in very different images. Water is especially fun to play around with shutter speed; with a slower shutter speed, water looks seamless and fluid, and with a very fast shutter speed you can usually see individual droplets of water. Okay, photography digression over.

A peaceful place in the middle
of a bustling city.

After the greenhouse we walked all around the park. Our favorite part was the traditional Japanese garden. It housed a building that resembled a shrine, arching bridges, willow trees, and ponds with catfish and turtles. Everything was incredibly green. I think we are going to return in October or November when the leaves start to change to red, because that will make it a completely new experience. I very much look forward to the changing of the leaves.