Suizenji Gardens (水前寺公園) was one of the two sites in Kumamoto I really wanted to take a look, and I was fortunate to manage some free time today to pay a visit. The park is considered one of the four best gardens in Japan.
Unfortunately, the weather again was pretty fouled up, and though it didn’t rain, there was little sun and even started snowing while I was in the park itself! Just ugh. Temperature was about 0-1 degrees, and it sure was difficult taking pictures when the entire body was shivering LOL.
The park while stunning in landscaping and its flora lovingly tended to by its caretakers is in reality rather small. I’ll put it very roughly at perhaps a quarter the size of Singapore’s own Botanic Gardens. Moreover, the park itself is surrounded by urbanization and all the trappings of modern civilization. It wasn’t easy composing pictures without seeing some apartment block in the distance.
in any case: here’s a selection of pictures:
I took a couple of hundred additional exposures too for HDR compositions. Will post them up when I’m done processing them.:)
What an interesting landscape, dotted with austere trees, rock-lined shores, and rolling hummocks!
More pictures here too.:)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chekyang/sets/72157622859402579/detail/
I’m doing the HDR exposures now – hopefully I’ll finish them before I fly home.:)
The Suizenji-Park expresses Tokaido-53-tugi ( There are posting stations of old important traffic route from Edo(Tokyo’s old name) to Kamigata (Osaka’s old name).
The mountain means Mt. Fuji at Shizuoka pref.
The lake means Biwa-Ko at Shiga pref.
The bridge means Nippon-Bashi at Osaka pref.