This Sunday I visited a local seaside park facing the Tokyo Bay. The local newsletter had featured an announcement that a park called the Sodegaura Kaihin Park would hold a festival with the first 200 entrants to the park presented with plants. I was pretty excited and hoped to find lots of flowering plants, maybe a botanical garden too!
Upon entering the park, two of the officials gave me a map of the park – it seemed to be fairly large by Japanese standards. I saw a high viewing platform and a large windmill within the park, that had large lawns, palm trees lining the paved paths, plenty of space for kids to play, clean toilets and a splendid view of the Tokyo Bay including the Aqualine, an bridge-cum-undersea tunnel linking Kisarazu, (the city where I stay) to Kawasaki, Tokyo and Yokohama.
Platform (left) and panoramic view (bridge-cum-tunnel in the sea can be seen on the right in enlarged view)
I ambled over to a tent-like structure where volunteers presented me with some marigold plants, a packet of Dianthus seeds, calorie mate and some pamphlets.
Presents to visitors (left) and tent-like structure (right)
Barring some camelias and a huge wind propeller that generated around 180 MW of power, there wasn’t much to hold my interest, so I decided to visit Sodegaura Koen, a large and popular Japanese garden not far away from this place.
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Wind power in park |
Camelia |
The Sodegaura Park, one of my favorites, was holding a chrysanthemum festival with the best flowers to be awarded prizes. The exhibits were amazing and I was delighted to see bonsais of chrysanthemum flowers too. The photos here speak for themselves!
Chrysanthemums entered for the contest (click to enlarge)
The bonsai exhibits were the best I have ever seen.
Bonsai – chrysanthemums
More Bonsai exhibits – chrysanthemums
I also met an elderly Japanese couple who introduced me to seeds of the Castanopsis cuspidata, lying on the path that ran around a lake within the park. These seeds are edible and taste quite nice. It appears that during their youth, these seeds were sold and were quite popular, but not many people bother to pick these up nowadays.
Castanopsis cuspidata seeds (left) and a scene from the Sodegaura Park (right)
The park is in full of flowers in spring and the beginning of autumn, but with winter soon to come, the flowers in the park in bloom were mainly chrysanthemum, serbia, and a sprinkling of cosmos, and of course, with plenty of ducks, swans and the Japanese carp in the waters.
Flowers in bloom at the Sodegaura Park
Birds in the park
Have a great day!
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