Originally Posted by jib71
I've seen Kenroku en and Koraku en. Both beautiful but too full of tourists to be able to relax. Actually I found a photo of Koraku en on Wikipedia which was taken by jpatokal. I wonder if that's the same jpatokal...
Nah - probably someone else with the same name:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Image:Korakuen_Overview.JPG
Thatsa me (not too many of us jpatokals out there
). I found Korakuen rather boring, it's just a vast expanse of grass with way too many tourists and bizarre sideshows like a cactus garden. I'd suggest
Hiroshima's Shukkeien instead, it's smaller but much quieter and (IMHO) much more "Japanese" in feel.
http://jpatokal.iki.fi/photo/travel/...th_Bridges.JPG
Also, in the interest of nitpickery I'll have to note that Kenrokuen/Korakuen/Kairakuen are Japan's Three
Famous Gardens (
Sanmeien), not the most beautiful ones.