Momiji Festival At Showa Kinen Park

Perfect weather for a visit to the park.

One popular spots to look for autumn foliage during the fall season in Tokyo is Showa Kinen Park (国営昭和記念公園), located in Tachikawa City. Of the sixteen national government park in total, this park is considered the leading one in Japan, drawing attention as the most up-to-date leisure spot in Tokyo. From its name, one would be able to guess that the park should have something to do with Emperor Showa. It was established as a park of a project to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Emperor Showa's reign.

The Koyou Matsuri (紅葉祭り) was held for approximately two weeks in November last month, and I took the opportunity to visit this park to have some photography session of the autumn foliage. Besides the main ones like ginkgo (イチョウ) and  Japanese maple (イロハモミジ), other trees include Chinese tallow tree (ナンキンハゼ) and Lindera (クロモジ), which are the main trees that attract the most attention during the fall season.

The main entrance of the park - Akebono Entrance.

There are four rows of ginkgo trees, 106 trees in total along this 200-meter stretch, known as "The Canal".

An old couple came and asked me what was I doing when I was attempting this shot, only to answer it herself, "Ohhh, you're taking the picture of the leaves" lol!

The Ginkgo Tree Avenue is at the background.



This shot reminds me of the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.



There are five fountains at this western garden-like square. 

I purposely chose a weekday to visit this park, thinking that I will be able to avoid the sea of people on the weekends. However, there was still a considerably big crowd on the day I went, which was a Thursday. Most of them were from the golden generations though. Not surprising at all because these people are so damn free.

I bet they are too bored sitting at home, hence they started picking up their phones and calling their friends for an outing at the park.

A close-up shot of the bright red Japanese maple.



Some interesting wooden art work at the Fureai Field (Friendship Field).



Walking a little bit further took me to the Waterfowl Lake.



There is a bird sanctuary for bird watching, while peddle boats and rowboats are available at the boat house.



Spotted a few people who made the beautiful scenery of the lake as their inspiration for their drawing.



A small path that goes around the lake.



This area is like a swamp, full with Japanese iris.



A small pond with lotus that is connected to the bigger lake in the background.

The park is extremely huge that it takes more than half-an-hour just to walk from one end to the other. For a person like me whose main purpose of going there was to snap photographs, it took me three or four times longer. In the end, I realised that I spent almost half a day by the time I finished exploring the whole park. Fortunately, the weather was very kind to me. Except for some light shower in the evening, it was sunny throughout the afternoon and it wasn't too cold as well.

Besides the blazing yellow ginkgo trees at the "Ginkgo Tree Avenue", another spot that attract visitors for it amazing scenery is the two rows of ginkgo trees at the sports area.

There are 98 ginkgo trees in total along this 300-meter stretch.

See, told you already. In every ten people I saw in the park that day, nine of them were from this generation haha!

Photo number-two of me in this entry. Don't worry, I won't pollute it with too many of my photos lol!

Another popular spot during the autumn at Showa Kinen Park is the highly expressive Japanese Garden, called "Nihon-teien" (日本庭園). This magnificent garden shows the natural beauty of four seasons while employing Japanese traditional gardening techniques. This garden showcases a typical Japanese-style garden, which contains a pond in the centre. There is also a tea house in this garden that provides tea ceremony for visitors.

Of the four seasons in a year, I believe autumn is the best time to visit this garden.

A small stream that flows through the garden, into the pond in the middle.

The small concrete bridge attracted the attention of many photographers.

The tea house, called "Kanfutei", where tea ceremonies are carried out on reservation.



Red leaves and rooftop.

A mixture of red and orange maple canopy.

Fallen maple leaves in the water.

I would say this garden is a lot better than Momijien in Nagaoka.

Bamboo trees at another different section of the garden.

A wooden house that acts as a viewing deck of the garden.

 The water wasn't moving and it provides a great surface for an almost-perfect reflection.

One of the most breathtaking garden I have visited in Japan.

There is a wooden bridge that goes over the pond.

A small swampy area that has the Japanese iris.

It wasn't the flowering season of the Japanese iris, otherwise this photo would look more colourful than the rainbow.

A small "island" at the pond.

They were fixing wooden trunks on the tree to get ready for winter. They call this "yuki-tsuri" (雪吊).

The stones made me feel like hopping on them haha!

Just look at the reflection on the water.

The Japanese garden from another section.

Different spots give different angle to the photo, but they still look amazingly beautiful.

The Bonsai Garden is located just next to the Japanese Garden. Here, fine examples of bonsai plants considered art donated by bonsai enthusiasts from all over Japan are on display throughout the year. There are about 80 bonsai plants of different varieties and shapes displayed in this garden.

One common question people might ask about bonsai is why are the bonsai trees so small. The reasons are because trees don't grow large because they are cultivated in small pots, their roots are restricted and growers regularly clip new buds, branches and roots.

Shelves of bonsais at the exhibition area

Japanese white pine, which is estimated to be sixty-years old.

A comparison of two plants of the same species but different age - Standard 7 and Standard 13 lol!

A great spot to savour the tranquility of nature.

This stream looks very much like the one I saw at the Botanic Garden in Christchurch.

My grandma would definitely love this - lemon grass stock for a year haha! This plant is known as Pampas Grass, a tall grass native to southern South America.

An open field, which is twice as large as Tokyo Dome. There is a symbol tree, Zelkova tree, which is more than 100-years-old, and more than 200 cherry blossom trees, poppies and cosmos at this area.

The park train, for more convenient movement around the park.

Too bad this train only goes around the park, otherwise I would have taken it to return home haha!

Autumn Foliage From Hondoji Temple

A fortnight ago, I made a trip to Hondoji Temple (本土寺) in Matsudo city, a neighbouring city just next to Chiba city for what the Japanese popularly call it as "momijigari" (紅葉狩り). Literally, it means visiting scenic areas where the leaves have turned red, or sometimes orange and yellow. You have "hanami" (花見) in spring, so "momojigari" is the autumn version of "hanami".

There are several nice spots for "momijigari" in Chiba. I chose this place because it was the last day they were having the night illumination at the temple. From the photos I saw, it looked like a place worth paying a visit. Plus, it takes less than an hour to reach this temple from my place by train.

The hand-written information board about the night illumination. The red words says that entrance ticket from day time visit cannot be re-used for night time. 
Damn smart wanna eat our money two times haha!



A small shop which looks very much like a coffee shop but it doesn't sell coffee, instead you get soba and green tea here lol!
Outside the shop, various kinds of pickles are sold.



Noticed a long queue from afar at this stall that sells 串団子 (kushi dango). It's not common to find green dango, so I decided to give it a try.



The dango are baked for several minutes on a charcoal stove to give them some slight crisp and later topped with either anko (red bean paste) 
or kurumi miso (walnut miso).



I chose kurumi miso as the topping. One stick for 300 yen (±RM10)

Similar to cherry blossoms in spring, the red autumn leaves don't last long and the best viewing time is usually limited to only one to two weeks. Hence, during this peak period, every popular autumn foliage spot in Japan is usually crowed with the locals and tourists. When I was there, it was a Sunday and also the final day where they had the night illumination.

Hence, it was not surprising to see human beings all around me. Basically, the people there can be categorised into three main groups - parents with their kids, couples, and photography enthusiast who normally comes from the golden generation haha!

仁王門 (Niou-mon) or the gate of dewa, that leads to the entrance to the temple.

Some blazing red Japanese maple trees at the gate.



Yup, there is an entrance fee to visit this temple. 



Five-storied pagoda (五重塔), which was built in 1991.



The main building of the temple - 本堂 (Hondou). 
 

Hondoji temple is a Nichiren-Buddhism (日蓮宗) temple, which is also known as the Ajisai Temple (アジサイ寺) as the Hydrangea blooms beautifully around the temple in the month of June every year.

My initial thought was that this temple is just like any other normal temples in Japan. A main building, a pagoda, several smaller worshiping halls, and a temizuya. However, I was surprised by its spacious area upon walking through the entrance gate. So, it's very easy to get lost inside the temple, especially for a first timer like me. But thank God I didn't get lost this time haha!

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A macro shot of the fallen dried leaves.

A striking contrast between the green bamboo trees and the red and yellow maple trees. 

A Japanese iris (菖蒲) pond. It is autumn so the leaves are dried. I bet this place looks really beautiful come spring.



Red and green offer great contrast.



Yellow ginkgo tree and red leaves from the maple tree.



Spot-lights fixed on the branches for the night illumination.



Some of the leaves were still green; they should turn yellow in another few days.



I think not every maple leaves turn red. I spotted some yellow ones too.



Without any sophisticated lenses or camera, this is the most I am able to shoot.



A dragon statue that appears from the ground. Some visitors washed their coins with the water from the dragon's mouth.



According to one of the workers at the temple, this is the temple's most beautiful spot.

Soon, it began to get dark and cold. Some of the visitors, including me, thought that perhaps we could just hang around there until the night illumination starts at six in the evening. However, we found out that they do not allow us to do that. They made sure nobody is inside the temple before they closed the gate to prepare the place for the night illumination. In other words, we gotta get another entrance ticket again later that evening =.=

While waiting for the gate to open for the night entry, I went back to the coffee shop to kill some time. It was really cold, so I got myself a cup of tea and matcha manju (抹茶饅頭) and keep myself warm there. 

Pickles still on sale at this hour. These pickles might not taste our taste bud, but it's like ulam and sambal belacan to the Japanese.



Matcha manju. Looks like a green pau.



The filling is made of matcha as well.

The entrance fee for the night illumination is supposed to be the same as the day time entrance; 500 yen for adult and 300 yen for primary school students. However, when I paid at the counter with a 500 coin, that guy gave me back 200 yen in return. Does that mean I got the ticket on primary student's price?

However, looking at my elephant size, it should be very obvious, isn't it? Hmmm, weird. Very weird.

Since I already understand the layout of the temple, I knew exactly where to head to first; somewhere different from the rest of the other visitors.

No, not to the toilet lol! But anyway, doesn't the toilet look nice haha!

The spot I headed to was 弁天堂 (Bentendou), where it is surrounded by a small man-made lake. The water was not moving at all, which provided a great reflection surface of the illuminated red maple trees.

To be honest, this is as good, if not better than the reflection lake I saw at Lake Matherson in New Zealand recently. The wait for several hours earlier
that evening was certainly worth it.

The bamboo tress in the background were also illuminated. 

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The five-story pagoda during night time.

The Buddha ashes from India and thousands of Buddha statues are kept inside this pagoda.

And finally, visitors were still praying at the main building of the temple at night.

Don't worry, they are real humans.