Beautiful roses and night Illumination at Kyu Furukawa Gardens

Oriental styled gardens are aplenty in Tokyo with Rikugien, Hamarikyu a couple of the major attractions. Kyu Furukawa Gardens in the suburbs are famous for the roses which bloom in spring and autumn. I have visited this place 3 times until now, in year 2000, 2006 and this year during the night time illumination season usually int he last week of May. Took some snaps of this western-style house on the slope in the gardens designed by an English architect, Josiah Conder the same man behind the Nikoai-Do Cathedral near Akihabara.
Rose flowers at Kyu Furukawa Gardens.The Park is a 5 minute walk from the JR Keihin Tohoku Line Kami-nakazato Station and the park stay open until late night during the third week of May (in 2015, until May 24) where there is illumination to go with the rose flower bloom.
Rose flowers at Kyu Furukawa GardensThe garden has been home to the British consulate after the World War II, although now the premises have been made open to general public. The Park retains its European look with the stone structure in the center and the slopes around it well maintained with various plantations and rose flowers.
Kyu Furukawa GardensThe Oriental feel of the gardens with the various plants well maintained offer a mix of Oriental and European experience and in the evenings you can relax at the gardens if taking photographs is not your cup of tea.
Twilight bliss at Kyu Furukawa GardensThere is an entrance fee of 150 yen (around a dollar), but is absolutely worth it to visit. Stone house at the Kyu Furukawa gardens is also lit from inside although a pity that you cannot enter the house…
Stone house at Kyu Furukawa gardensThe flowers itself are a big attraction for me and as if that was not enough, at the back of the gardens is a pond!! I am not sure if the photograph conveys it, but you can literally stare at the pond and the reflections endlessly, experience nothingness…
Still water reflections at Kyu Furukawa GardensNot satisfied with one snap, we took one more of the same spot a little bit zoomed out.Rikugien is beautiful, but Kyu Furukawa is also awesome. The gardens close at 16:30 on regular days, but the third week of May the garden is open until 20:30 for entrance and closes at 21:00
Still water reflections at Kyu Furukawa GardensThe garden does get crowded during illumination time, but still it is a well known hideout and you should check it out within this week, since the last day of the illumination is May 24.
Kyu Furukawa GardenEvening crowds at the Kyu Furukawa Gardens.
There is a small artificial waterfall like landscaping at the back of the Garden too. Do not miss it and the pond. for sure.
Crowds at Kyu Furukawa GardensKyu Furukawa Gardens were originally the property and grounds belonging to Mutsu Munemitsu (1844-1897), a Meiji-era politician from Wakayama. The gardens were laid out by Kyoto-based landscape designer Ogawa Jihei, aka Niwashi Ueji (1860-1933) and include a pond created in the shape of the Japanese character for heart (心), a waterfall and a dry waterfall (karetaki) using rocks to create the impression of moving water.
DSC06981A few more shots of the flowers. There are over 90 varieties of roses in the Kyu Furukawa Gardens..White and yellow and red, to pink flowers.
Rose flowers at Kyu Furukawa Gardens.White flowers…
Rose flowers at Kyu Furukawa GardensThe Gardens are in the city itself and access is so close… a few stops from Ueno on Keihin Tohoku Line Kami-Nakazato Station.
Rose flowers at Kyu Furukawa Gardens. 旧古河庭園I really want to see the inside of the stone house… they should open it to the general public, like the old foreigners settlements, Ijinkan, in Kobe. They make for a MAJOR tourism attraction in Kobe and I do not see why it cannot be so for Kyu-Furukawa Gardens
DSC07030For reference sake, a stamp at the gate, took one on a notebook I had carried with me..It is these small things which I like… Japan has a stamp facility at every attraction
Kyu Furukawa GardensThere is another story which link Kyu Furukawa Gardens to my childhood in India! Yes I will post about it sometime soon.
Kyu Furukawa Gardens

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