A few days ago, Blaine asked me if it was worth it to visit Ritsurin Park in the Fall.
My short answer was “yes”.
Here is my long answer (with not many more words though):
Note that those pictures were taken on December 4th, 2011. Just to give you an indication, and to tell you not to rush just yet if you don’t live in the area, things are still mostly green around here (but that will change in a matter of days).
Also note that from November 23rd to December 2nd, the Ritsurin Park is open at night (I’ll try to show you pictures and give you more information about that before November 23rd. 🙂
In the meantime, if you don’t know what to do in about a month and want to see something amazing, you can always visit Ritsurin Park in the Fall.
That’s the great thing about Japanese gardens, they are beautiful all year round. You get the amazing red and yellow leaves in Autumn, snow covered landscape in Winter, plum and cherry blossoms in Spring and the green of summer.
Actually, Ritsurin (and I believe many other parks and gardens) was designed (with the selection of plants, etc) to have something special for every season.
That why they are so amazing because they were designed to be appreciated and enjoyed all year round. My favourite so far has been Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa which I posted about here https://japantraveladvice.com/kenrokuen-garden/
Thanks for the follow up post. Your pictures are nice.
I’m half tempted to visit during the late afternoon and stay around for the light up. My only concern is the throngs of people that will probably be there as well.
I think my aversion to people, cities, and events grows more as I spend more time away from all of that.
What to do… what to do…
It depends how strong is your aversion.
I’m not a big fan of crowds either, and while it’s true that there were a lot of people last year, it didn’t feel that crowded, maybe because of the darkness. Not sure.
I’ll try to post pictures as soon as possible to help you decide. 🙂