Tokyo 2022 (Part 4~Chasing Colours~)

Since I complained about greenery in the last post, thought it would be best to follow up and describe the successful chase for autumn colours in this one. It took a few days, but I finally saw them from about the halfway point of the trip and got very excited over trees and leaves haha. Since my trip dates were anchored, it seems like I was just fortunate to be in Tokyo at the cusp of change!

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I didn't venture much out of urban Tokyo so there was no better way to see the colours than visit some of its many many gardens and parks. The gardens were curated and the parks were happening so both types of green areas were nice in their own way. Looking through my photos, I was reminded once again how great the weather was throughout my week there! The bright blue skies over really accentuated what were essentially plant photos from over a few days haha.

Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens (31 Oct)

There really were many gardens in Tokyo so I had to be selective. This was one of the obvious choices to visit because it's one of the oldest traditional Japanese gardens in Tokyo and also coz I was sold on the vibrantly coloured online photos. Unfortunately, it was still very green when I visited on the last day of Oct. I knew immediately that I was too early for its autumn show. But ok, that's not the garden's fault haha. 

This was a small garden situated smack in the middle of the city so most views around the lakes came with a building or two in the background. However, its tranquility was unmatched by any other place I visited on this trip.

The ducks seemed to prefer chilling in the shade and that's the massive Tokyo Dome peeking out over the trees.

No grand showcase here like in other gardens but there was a sense of neatness and care, sort of like someone's beloved backyard. (Description lifted from a sign) these pavements were called "Nobedan" - a simple Chinese-style stone pavement of skillfully arranging hewn stones and cobblestones.

Shot-from-under-the tree. The maple leaves were always eye-catching, whatever their colour (even though green really made them look like a certain other type of leaf hahaha seriously can't unsee it after coming back from Thailand).

Can almost imagine an ancient royal person sitting underneath that bonsai and reading a book.

Even though I didn't get see the colours, I rather enjoyed the morning spent here. Will people understand when I say this is sort of a quintessential location for a solo trip? Maybe it's just my taste. None of my solos are anti-social in nature, but in this place it was perfect to be alone. Just a peaceful pocket in the busy city, suited for personal wandering and reflecting. Also, it probably helped that it was a Monday morning.

Koganei Park (2 Nov)

Strictly speaking, I was just passing through this park to visit the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum since I didn't have a lot of time to spare. However, this location is significant coz it was where I saw my first red maple leaves :D It was on my way out that I spotted a single, fiery red tree and totally zoomed over the grass to get to it. 

Never thought I'd ever feel such excitement over a tree hahaha. And no idea why this tree, alone, decided to change colours earlier than all its peers.

The mandatory shot-from-under-the-tree, finally with colours other than green and blue! This trip actually gave me quite a few lock screen/phone background-worthy photos to choose from and this one was a strong contender.

The lucky first few red leaves! While I was so happy to finally find some of them, I still hadn't gotten over the unexpected smallness. Hence this photo was taken with scale to send excitedly to people back home. 

Over the next few days, I'd go on to amass a collection of colourful leaves, scavenged from the ground at various locations and tucked carefully between the printed documents in my folder xD

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (3&4 Nov)

Due to timing issues, I actually visited twice over two days (and paid the 500 yen entry fee twice erps). Definitely wouldn't have done this if I hadn't found anything special on the first visit. To think that I intended to just make a "quick round" of the entire gardens within the hour-ish that I had haha.

These round, Japanese-style shrubs/bushes were very cute and looked like giant mochis.

A little hard to see, but here's some ducks in the shade again, sitting on a low branch in the water.

So the reason I made the effort and carved out the time to come back was because I found (what I thought was) maple again! This time, there were entire rows of coloured trees and the leaves were HUGE. So very different from the lone tree at Koganei Park. It's a good thing I entered from the Okido gate on my first visit, coz it was close enough for me to stumble into the sunlit avenue of trees where I ended up spending almost all my time and decided that it was a must to go back. 

This was what I first saw. It felt almost like like wandered into a magical golden forest~

OMG A LARGE RED LEAF.

So... those trees weren't actually maple hahaha. I only found out later, after re-examining the gardens brochure and checking with my good friend Google, that the trees were London Planes - a form of sycamore. As a layperson from a sunny island in SEA I wouldn't have been able to tell honestly. The leaves were maple-shaped and coloured, and that was all I needed xD Sorz to the people who received some fake news in my excitement over finding large coloured leaves haha.

Another type of scaled photo to emphasise the size of these non-maple leaves!

I crunched up and down the avenue multiple times thinking "I've found Autumn" :D

I really went around searching for the perfectest leaves to attempt to bring back. Unfortunately it was very difficult to keep larger-than-A4 leaves undamaged, so I had to discard these and find smaller ones.

That London Plane avenue was truly a beautiful place. There were a couple of families there since it was a public holiday on one of those days and I witnessed a small girl tucking two of those huge yellow leaves into her pigtails. It was the cutest thing when she ran around and the leaves flapped like giant ears xD

So that was just one part of Shinjuku Gyoen haha. Even on my second visit I was on a tight schedule, so I had to fast march around to capture as much of the gardens as possible. It was definitely worth the visit since one fee essentially bought entry into a few themed zones with different views. There were the regal western gardens and more traditional Japanese ones where I found the red Japanese (small-leafed) maple once again. 

The immaculate rose garden near the London Plane avenues.

Can't remember exactly, but this could've been from inside a "Taiwan-style" rest house. I really liked this view even though the sunshine made it quite hard to get a shot that was not too over-exposed. 

It's not a Japanese garden without water bodies!

And of course, I hoarded more fallen leaves and photos from the bright red trees in the Japanese garden.

Imperial Palace East Gardens (5 Nov)

Parking this garden here as well even though the main draw of this place was not really the colours. There were a bunch of other interesting things and this was one of the final locations visited, as originally scheduled on my last full day of the trip. 

It's the usual greenery and water, but I wanted to point out the patches of algae-ish plants on the left-side pond. In any other place it'd probably have been some kind of unwelcome occurrence, but not in Japan. These were a legit type of plant on display though I couldn't read the Japanese sign.

While halfway along the bridge, I realised how gorgeous the koi in the pond was and literally stopped in my tracks to watch them. Compared to the duller-looking kois in SG (that tend to get eaten by otters), these seemed to have some kind of pearly sheen to them, especially the gold and white ones, and silky, flowy fins. Really one level up.

This used to be the site of the Edo Castle after all and the fortresses were well-preserved.

Fortified hiding place for the emperor and his family which totally looked like a scary barrow with wights in it.

It took me a while before I realised people weren't clustering and taking photos of dead branches. These little blooms were indeed a surprise since I didn't expect to see anything resembling sakura at this time of year. Googling around, it's possible that this was some kind of winter-blooming cherry tree, or else it's got its seasons way confused haha. In any case, it was quality over quantity here!

Ahh, it's December. Maple trees in some parts of Japan are still in the midst of changing colour right now haha. Not sure how much more I can cover within this year, but I'll definitely still be reliving my Tokyo trip into 2023 xD 

Part 5 I think will be another geographical one, covering a mix of things that I did on the same day I visited Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. That was one packed day!

Ending off with the winner of the lock screen pageant, hailing from Shinjuku Gyoen!