Journeys›Photograph

Shiba Park Under the Shiodome Towers

·Minato, Japan·#japan#travel#architecture#tokyo#minato#hamarikyu-gardens
A Japanese garden with a green pond, manicured trees, distant city buildings, and several people walking.

Tokyo day, and most of it went to Shiba Park in Minato, which has been a public park since 1873 — one of the oldest in Japan — and now sits ringed by office towers. The Conrad's sign rides above the tree line most of the way around the pond, so the garden never quite lets you forget the century outside it.

The pond is milk-green, edged with black pines trained out horizontal over the water. A long wooden bridge runs out to a tea house standing on stilts in the middle; the sign at the near end reads O-tsutai Bridge. Out by one of the islands an egret held a rock while a cormorant next to it dried its wings, both of them ignoring the apartment blocks stacked up behind the trees.

On the way out we cut over to Nippon Television Tower for the Miyazaki clock — a copper-brown machine city bolted to the side of the building, all rivets and bells and little doors. It runs a full mechanical performance at noon, three, six, and eight on weekdays. In one of the lower windows, two figures stand at a forge with hammers raised.

A scenic park with a large pond, green trees, a wooden bridge, and tall city buildings in the background.A large traditional Japanese garden with a pond, a wooden teahouse, and pine trees, framed by city skyscrapers.A traditional Japanese garden pond with a tea house, surrounded by trees and modern skyscrapers in the background.A Japanese garden with a large pond, traditional buildings, a wooden bridge, and modern skyscrapers in the background.A Japanese garden pond with a wooden bridge and trees, with several tall skyscrapers in the background.A Japanese garden pond with traditional buildings, green trees, and distant modern city high-rises under a blue sky.A traditional Japanese garden featuring a large pond, a wooden bridge, historic buildings, lush trees, and several people walking.A large, intricate, steampunk-style clock with animated figures is mounted on a modern glass building.

More Entries