Inokashira Park

 One day in March I decided to head to Kichijoji to look at a ring. I didn't buy the ring, but I had noticed there was a very large park nearby. So I headed over to it.

Even though most of the sakura trees were waiting to bloom, there were still pretty flowers to be seen as I walked through the park. 

Inokashira Park is known for a few things, besides being a bit of an oasis in the vast concrete area of Tokyo. Inokashira Pond is one of the two primary sources of water for the Kanda River. 

There are a number of monuments through out the park, as any good Japanese park has. 

Including this, Ochanomizu. As the name implies it was a spring fed source of water, including water used for a tea ceremony by shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa.

The water now comes from a well but it still goes into the end of the pond and then into the Kanda River at the other end of the pond. It was a really nice water feature.

Various flowers were blooming through out the park.

Including some in the ume or plum tree garden. 

Hidden behind some branches and a couple spraying fountains were the buildings of Inokashira Benzaiten Shrine. 

There were magnolia trees also showing off. 

I think there is a monument to shogun Iemitsu Tokogawa up there. I didn't go up to look. I had a bit of walking to do this day so going up more stairs wasn't in my plans.

One of a couple long bridges that stretch across the pond. This one is near the Inokashira Park Zoo. 

I didn't go in there but there was plenty of wildlife to see outside of it. Like this Large-billed Crow. 

The park is actually a great place for bird watching. 

Including swan boats. 

There really are a lot of birds there. Like this Eastern Great Egret. 

And these Grey Herons. 

Inokashira Park is also known as the place where the Ghibli Museum is located. But this day I had dedicated to looking at flowering trees. Some other time possibly I will visit the museum.

So this was a little bit of my walk around Inokashira Pond in the park. But there was something I did visit there and that will be my next post.