Japanese Gardens
Japanese Gardens are pretty well known around the world. They are sought after by people for its beauty and serenity that it emits so you can actually see imitations of a Japanese Garden everywhere and anywhere. Japanese gardens (日本庭園, nihon teien), can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, at Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines, and at historical landmarks such as old castles. Many of the Japanese gardens most famous in the West, and within Japan as well, are dry gardens or rock gardens, karesansui. The tradition of the Tea masters has produced highly refined Japanese gardens of quite another style, evoking rural simplicity. Japanese gardens have also been imitated in Western gardening.
Typical Japanese gardens contain several of these elements, real or symbolic:
* Water
* An island
* A bridge to the island
* A lantern, typically of stone
* A teahouse or pavilion
Japanese gardens might fall into one of these styles:
* Pond gardens, for viewing from a boat.
* Sitting gardens, for viewing from inside a building or on a veranda.
* Tea gardens, for viewing from a path which leads to a tea ceremony hut.
* Strolling gardens, for viewing from a path which circumnavigates the garden.
In Japan the most beautiful and famous Japanese Gardens are Koraku-en Japanese Garden and Kairaku-en Japanese Garden.
The Koraku-en garden was built in the 1700s and it is about 28 acres of sakura trees, plum trees, Japanese maple trees and ponds. There is also a teahouse and a Noh stage there for visitors to enjoy the scenery with. During the autumn season, the Koraku-en attracts thousands of tourists every day because of its beautiful autumn foliage.
The Kairaku-en was built in the 1800s and has over 3000 plum trees, thus making it the perfect spot for the annual plum flower festival. Throngs of visitors visits the garden during this time to savor the beautiful cascades of the plum flower blooms.
- 
