Visit a Japanese Garden once and you’ve visited them all. But there’s no getting tired of them. The look of a Japanese Garden and the feeling that takes over you once you are inside one of these gardens is like nothing else. They are landscaped to fill you with calmness and the plants and trees they have in there are meant to be a treat to your eyes. Visit in the Spring and you’ll see their signature Cherry Blossoms. Walk in on a fall day and be delighted with the fall foliage of the garden. Our visit to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga was just to do that — to catch some fall color.
If it’s fall, look for a Japanese Garden near you to treat you to some colors-of-autumn. These gardens are carefully designed to feature all the seasons of the year, so there will be no disappointment there. We visited Hakone Gardens towards the end of October but it turned out it wasn’t peak season for the autumnal colors. But the garden had splashes of fall color all around and it was absolutely pleasing to the eye.
Hakone Gardens in the Fall
Like other Japanese Gardens, Hakone Gardens too has a placid pool with Koi (fish) in them, an arched bridge, waterfall, stone lanterns, dry oceans and a tea house.
This one also has a small Bamboo Forest on one end of it and it’s a beautiful little corner. I would have liked to see more Bamboo there, though. There seemed to be some more room for those tall grasses.
Talking of ‘small, let me tell you that this Japanese Garden seemed to be much smaller than the others I’ve visited. This is when I tell you that Hakone Gardens was once private property. It belonged to a non-Japanese couple that had an affinity for Japanese landscaping. After changing hands a few times, the garden came to be owned by the City of Saratoga. And some years back the city felt Hakone Gardens should have a foundation of its own to maintain and preserve it. So now that’s how it now operates.
Since 2013 the estate — that is over a 100 year old — has been on the National Register of Historic Places.(If you would like to know more about the gardens, here’s the official site.)
Linking to —
If you’d like to see more Japanese Gardens on the West Coast, do visit:
Japanese Friendship Garden in San Jose
Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco
Also:
Japanese Tea Garden (features and symbolism)
Beautiful place.
Sydney – City and Suburbs
It is, isn’t it?
Thank you for coming this way, Jim. ?
beautiful garden and beautiful images.
Absolutely. And if it’s ‘spring’ or ‘fall’ there’s a lot of color in these Japanese gardens. 🙂
Thank you, Klamath.:)
Gorgeous. I love the colours and the textural design of the garden. Japanese gardens are kinda other worldly. I’m glaring at my garden and attempting to work out why mine doesn’t look like that, but then I remember they have gardeners 😀
thank you so much for sharing these lovely photos.
Best wishes,
Liz
Adelaide, Australia
Welcome here, Liz.
Haha, yes – and gardeners ‘trained for the upkeep of Japanese gardens,’ too. 🙂 The signature landscaping in these gardens makes them a world of their own. So pretty. So calm.
I’m sure you have a lovely garden, Liz.
Thank YOU for visiting this blog. 🙂
How very gorgeous!
Fall is a gorgeous season, is it not, Lady Fi?
Thank you for coming this way. ?
Nice mood 🙂
?
Hey Joshi.
Photographer’s delight this place is, huh?
So beautiful and calm…
Beautiful indeed.
Japanese gardens are meant to make visitors feel very calm in its premises. 🙂 And I actually feel that way in these places.
Thank you for visiting, dear Ranjana. ?
All the photographs are wonderfully composed and shot!
Thank you so much, Magic eye. 🙂
It’s always great to hear that from you. 🙂
What a riot of colours, Divya!Lovely
Indeed. 🙂
Thank you so much, Mr. Bhatia. 🙂
Gorgeous fall colours!
True — they make such a gorgeous sight. 🙂
Welcome here, Sharada. 🙂
Amazing beauty !! Japanese gardens and temples (Otera ) are very fascinating !!
Very. Japanese gardens and Japanese architecture are unique and pleasing to the eye.
Thank you, Yogi. 🙂
Peace and beauty..thanks for sharing such a treat to the eyes
These gardens are said to be designed to have a calming effect on the visitors. And they seem to succeed at doing that.
You are so welcome.
And thank YOU for coming this way, Sapna. Welcome to Tipsy from the TRIP. 🙂
Beautiful photographs !
Thank you, Renu. 🙂
Very beautiful and colorful garden.
Absolutely beautiful. And the fall colors seem to add to the charm.
Thank you, Rajesh.
Transported to Japan! It’s extremely beautiful in the pics itself…how wonderful it would be to be there in person! I love their arched bridges, koi fish, the bamboo trees, cherry blossoms, the colours, the texture…all of it! Loved the 4th and the last pics the most!
A little Japan made in the US. 😉
I love Japanese Gardens. They all look kinda alike but but there’s no getting tired of them. I love the tranquility in them.
And the colors you see in Japanese gardens are something; especially in Spring and Fall.
Thank you so much dear Deepa. 🙂
Lovely…
🙂
The park looked very pretty. Had we gone a week or so later, there would have been more colour though. 🙂
Thank you, Rajeev.
The flaming tree by the waterfall is my favorite!
That Japanese Maple tree was one of my favourite sights there. It looked so pretty by the waterfall. 🙂
Thank you for stopping by, Mridula. 🙂