The Lazy Womans Garden

Jun 24, 2014

The Most Beautiful Garden in the World

was mine for three days!

Many famous people from around the world have visited the Fujiya.
The Fujiya Hotel offers five types of accommodation: the Main Building, the Comfy Lodge, Restful Cottage, the Flower Palace, the Forest Lodge, and the Annex Kikka-so Inn (a traditional tatami room).
These are are all registered as important cultural assets. Its decoration is European Victorian with lots of dark carved wood.But the flower palace is pure japanese decoration on the outside.

Arrived Miyanoshita in Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan by mountain train.
The hotel was constructed in 1891, and consists of many different parts constructed in a mixture of traditional Japanese and western architecture which was popular during the Meiji period. On September 6, 1945, agents of the US CIA arrested Colonel Josef Albert Meisinger of the German Gestapo there.

Famous guests include Charles Chaplin, Helen Keller, John Lennon, Prince Albert (later George VI) of the UK, the Swedish Crown Prince and his retinue, the Emperor Showa, the current Emperor and Empress, and me!

my room had a hot springs tub and the main building has a lovely tea room with the view of a koi pond pictured below..and I was covered as far spiritual inspiration..haha

the koi pond

These are the roses in mass

below is a pine bonsai.
There are 2 green houses holding tropicals as well.

This is the little shrine temple next to the property. With a place to wash hands (first left, then right ,then your mouth and then rinse the dipper) and the typical tinny bell to ring upon arrival after you bow clap twice and bow again. You can continue to ask for health,prosperity etc.

rhododendron

This is the garden I want to live in. It's not a Japanese garden strictly.Its nearly 16,000 square meters It's loaded with flowering plants and old trees and shaped bushes and moss,waterfalls, bridges, bells, fish, stones, stairs and many places to meditate. Worth a visit to Japan for this place.

Jun 12, 2014

What I did on my summer vacation

Yes, I admit I love traveling and one place I always wanted to go to was Japan. Well it's taken a lifetime to finally get up the money to go there. Thanks to AMEX Starwood card, we were able to go first class on the plane and at the hotels too. And of course as a gardener, I was looking for live growing things

Tokyo is the capital,of Japan and, with 13.23 million, it's the most populous city in the world. And Japan uses all its space,the flats are for houses and horticulture, and the hills are preserved for its lovely vegetation. The first thing I noticed, besides the wonderful cleanliness,is the quiet. Such a big city and not very much noise. They utilize the public transport and are always polite,quiet and reserved. We visited the Meiji shine (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3002.html )and the Sensoshi Temple ( http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3001.html). What I noticed about the trees were that they were very round shaped and chartreuse green.

Senso-ji Temple
The legend says that in the year 628, two brothers fished a statue , the goddess of mercy, out of the Sumida River, and even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them. Consequently, Senso-ji was built nearby for the goddess of Kannon. The temple was completed in 645, making it Tokyo's oldest temple.

During World War II, the temple was bombed and destroyed. It was rebuilt later and is a symbol of rebirth and peace to the Japanese people. In the courtyard there is a tree that was hit by a bomb in the air raids, and it had regrown in the husk of the old tree and is a similar symbol to the temple itself.

It is believed that Japanese deities inhabit certain natural objects such as rocks and trees. Most shrines in Japan are located in forests known as “Chinju-no-mori” (guardian trees). Because they are sacred, these wooded areas have been preserved, so there are many such trees that are hundreds of years old. These include cedars, camphor trees, and Japanese tabunoki trees. A giant sacred tree is called a “Goshinboku” and is marked by a shimenawa or sacred rope. Regardless of where you are from, when you stand in front of such giant trees, you can’t help but feel a sense of awe. In Japan, it is believed that deities use these Goshiboku as landmarks when visiting on festival days . We arrived just in time for the yearly festival.

Yes, the azaleas were in bloom

Sanja Matsuri is a religious celebration and cultural event featuring three large mikoshi that appear on the third and final day of the festival. These three elaborate, black lacquered-wood shrines are built to act as miniature, portable versions of Shrine. Decorated with gold sculptures and painted with gold leaf each one weighs approximately one ton and costs $390,760 to construct. respresendint the three men who founded the temple, they are carried on four long poles lashed together with ropes, and each needs approximately 40 people dispersed evenly to safely carry them. Throughout the day, a total of about 500 people participate in carrying each shrine.We were there on Saturday, when approximately 100 mikoshi from the 44 districts were paraded through the street by the young men mostly and blessed by the Shinto priests.I was able to tolerate this huge orowded event because of these amazing respectful people.

The next activity was a visit to the Meiji Shrine.
The Shino Shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife

After the emperor's death in 1912,. An iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken had been known to visit was chosen as the building's location.Construction began in 1915, and the shrine was primarily of Japanese cypress and copper. It was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921, and its grounds officially finished by 1926. The original building was destroyed during the WWII. The rebuild completed in October, 1958.

The forest is one of trees that I don't recognize. The green was electric !!
Meiji Shrine is located in a forest that covers an area of 700,000 square-meters (about 175 acres). This area is covered by an evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which were donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established. The forest is visited by many as a recreation and relaxation area in the center of Tokyo