Gardens and Castles and Monkeys, oh my!

Konnichiwa! This day was a day filled with gardens, castles, temples and...monkeys. Yes, monkeys.

First thing in the morning, we met downstairs after a delicious, western style (hallelujah) breakfast to head to our first site of the day: the monkey park.

After lots of burning calves and heavy breathing, we reached the top of "monkey mountain" to find our small primate cousins running around looking for food. I was a little unsure about how I felt about these creatures. They were adorable, therefore I wanted to pet them; they were also completely terrifying, and I wanted to be as far as possible from them. The latter feeling won, and many of the girls (including myself) spend most of our time clinging on to each other and Keen Sensei and shrieking as the monkeys ran around eating the food the workers threw out for them. But they sure were cute. It was an interesting way to start the day.

 
This is a view of Kyoto, photobombed by a monkey. I think his name was Wrinkles.

No monkeys in this picture. Except for Tat.

Now, enough about the monkeys. Although I was completely fascinated by the subjects of this excursion, my assignment is to discuss Japanese gardens, which we have seen many of. And, I can confirm that they are beautiful. I am going to try to convince my green-thumb father to help me start a mini one on our backyard (Dad, if you're reading this, it's time we start a Japanese garden. More details to come when I get home.)

The gardens we saw on this day really showed us how the Japanese truly value and take good care of their gardens, down to each and every stone or tree. Our first garden we saw today was at the Golden Pavilion. This giant, gold-leaf covered temple is surrounded by a pond filled with carp and "islands" that represent the islands of Japan. These "islands," AKA small pieces of land in a pond that are about as big as a car, usually had multiple large rocks or bonsai trees. Typically, the rocks or trees were arranged in a way to represent an animal. The most common animal representations seen in Japanese gardens (NOT Zen gardens, that is a whole 'nother ball game) are a turtle and a crane, which was the case here. These animals represent long life and bring good luck (and who doesn't want that?)





The second garden, and perhaps the most interesting one, was the garden at Nijo Castle. This castle, known as the Samurai castle, was built about 400 years ago by the Tokugawa Shogunate. It is famous for its creaky woodwork (to warn its inhabitants of ninjas who had broken in. Yes, ninjas... I'm serious.) and its bridges that had been used as a set for the movie, The Last Samurai. However, it's garden was very interesting. It was a traditional Japanese garden, because it had water and lots of greenery, unlike Zen gardens, which are dry. Yet, as our guide Tammy pointed out, there are no flowers.

That's when I got confused. From what I had previously studied, traditional Japanese gardens are *supposed* to have flowers. It's just kind of a thing. So what is up with this one??

...See. No flowers.

Well turns out, the Shogun was intent on a long life, like any normal person would be, but he decided that measures should be taken to help ensure a long life, right down to his garden. So he therefore wanted the garden to only represent eternal things, such as rocks, water and evergreen trees. Unfortunately, flowers do not fall in that category, so he therefore banned them from being planted. That's dedication right there.

This garden also included islands in the pond that represented a turtle and a crane. All the stones in the garden were donated by feudal lords.

Lots and lots of rocks.

Sophie C, Class of 2015