this shot was the best for the day in my opinion. and it was the first taken. i guess no need for rearrangement. but yeah, my walk for the day started earlier, the sun was still up.
after a late lunch of sushi, i decided to go straight to my walk. the sun was so great to waste, a change from the rainy days before this. the planned route was something i took from the tokyo walking map site and you can check this route in this link.
now route was called the Green Travel Road (みどりをめぐる道). let us see how green it truly is.
the first place of note was the Rikugien Gardens (六義園), which was considered as one of tokyo's most beautiful japanese landscape gardens. built in the 1700s, the garden has man made hills and forested areas surrounding a central pond.
it would have been better to witness this first hand but the park was closed the moment i arrived. i could only see the gate and the brick walls from outside. but i was pretty sure that it would have been a pleasant walk inside judging from the tall trees jutting over the fences.
just next door was this public playground. young kids were loudly playing inside. a group was playing with bubbles when i was there. it was a bit wide and would probably fit lots of kids. i stayed there for a bit relieving how it felt to be young at one point in my life. as it was beside the garden, tall trees were also prevalent in the playground.
from there, i went back to walking on the main roads. and even in here, trees were very visible. now this route name is starting to prove itself.
from the main busy road, the route led me to a small alley towards some residential area. the houses in here were prettily fenced by walls of bushes. a lady was in front of me while walking this path so it was very difficult to take pictures or i might be mistaken as a stalker. at the very far end of this alley was a shrine.
but the walking route led me to the road beside the shrine. it was a steep road, this whole time i have been climbing up and down the streets and this was beginning to be a pattern. this was one of the steepest road downhill, at this point i was thanking my angels for guiding me to walk the route counterclockwise for if not, i would be climbing up this steep road instead.
just a few meters downhill, i finally saw the entrance gate of the shrine i saw uphill. this was the Hikawa Jinja (簸川神社) with its main entrance filled with sakura trees. if this were in normal circumstances i would have climbed up those stairs to check the shrine, but then i knew that it was but a small shrine as seen from the back so i would just be climbing down those steps in just a mere 5 minutes after.
that shrine was adjacent to another garden on my route. this was a much larger garden compared to the previous one, the Koishikawa Botanical Garden (小石川植物園). their website best describes what this garden was about.
is a facility affiliated with the University of Tokyo for the purpose of botanical research and education. It is not only the oldest botanical garden in Japan, but also one of the oldest in the world. The garden’s distant predecessor was the Koishikawa Oyakuen, the government’s medicinal herb garden, established by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1684, some 340 years ago. It was transferred to The University of Tokyo in 1877, when the university was founded, and became the birthplace of modern botany in Japan. source
this too was closed when i arrived. so i just enjoyed the tall trees above the fences. and did you see those stylish fences? metal sheets with holes in leaf patterns adorned the whole southern stretch of the garden. this eastern side we are on now though was a different story, stone fences lined on an uphill path. across this path i saw some old styled roofs but i really had no clue what these structures were. i could only see these roofs over the fences.
a few more meters and i was back to civilization. even this temple entrance of the Shinkoji (心光寺) was sandwiched between a fruit shop and a restaurant; only this very small brick path could be seen from across the street. this area was busy as it was close to a train station as well.
the greeneries of this temple were also breathtaking although i only viewed it from outside. the Joshinji Temple (浄心寺) had a buddha statue just outside its gates facing the street. the temple was built in the 1600s and was adorned with sakura trees with petals you could see sprawled on the grounds. like any other buddhist temples, this also serves as a cemetery.
i took a left turn near the Nippon Medical School Hospital (日本医科大学付属病院). it was good to know the number of hospital choices i have nearby. this was a model hospital in my eyes, it had a garden outside which would really help the patients to a smooth and quick recovery.
i was nearing the end of the route although it was still quite far from home. i passed by an elementary school of which i was walking on the hillside. i think it is illegal to take pictures of schools or children inside schools in japan. they valued privacy so much that they wrapped a piece of cloth outside the gates. a bit further the school was this very thin park like area beside the street. it was a single path with plants and trees. the stone mosaic on the floor was very interesting though.
the next stretch of road was very residential. it even had a sign which says to keep noise to a minimum since it was full of normal household. near the end of that was a gymnasium of sorts were people in karate outfits were gathered. i couldn't help my self from taking this picture from outside the main door.
and this scene was the last of this walking path. it was indeed green! i guess the route maker was encouraging people to come enjoy more greeneries inside the two gardens i passed by. if only they were open i would have gladly paid the entrance to have a look inside. nevertheless, i enjoyed the walk so much although i was surprised by the number of uphill and downhill paths.
would i walk this same path? probably not the whole route, i would replace the residential neighborhoods with some other streets in the future, this is a photowalk afterall so i would like to take more pictures.
anyways, that is all folks.
AMPING KANUNAY!
all content is by yours truly unless otherwise specified
all photos are taken with a galaxy s23 ultra
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io
Height168.0 cm |  | Weight71.6 kg |  | Body Fat% |  |
Waistcm |  | Thighscm |  | Chestcm |  |
