Autumn in Hibiya Park

Another cloudy day. I decided to visit 日比谷公園,  Hibiya Park again. Nice retro street lights. I would not be surprised if this dates back to the late 1880's, which is when the near-by Imperial Palace switched to electric lighting. Most likely the lamps have been there since June 1st,1903 when the area was made a public park, if not earlier.

I decided on visiting Hibiya Park because of a couple of reasons. One was because there are a lot of trees there so there would be a lot of autumn color. 

And there was. 

The Japanese Garden was beautiful despite the inclement weather.

A view of 雲形池, Kumogata Pond and the crane fountain. The fountain is one of the oldest in Japan. 

  There were a few people enjoying the Japanese garden and pond, but not many, so it was easy to get lovely photos.

While I was walking to another section of the park, I passed by フェリーチェガーデン日比谷, Felice Garden Hibiya. 

 The German style bungalow was built in 1910 and the architect was 福 田重義, Shigeyoshi Fukuda Shigeyoshi. He also designed the Jack Tower, Port Opening Memorial Hall, in Yokohama. 

 The Felice Garden Hibiya building has been the park administrative office, park museum and gallery, and now it's a wedding venue.

One of the bird fountains in Hibiya Park. This time it's pelicans. Hibiya Park is a good place for bird watching. This fountain is located in 日比谷公園 第一花壇, the First Flower Garden.  

 The First Flower Garden was part of what made Hibiya Park the first Western style park in Japan. Even in December there were roses and other flowers blooming there. Unfortunately most of the roses are away from walking paths so getting decent photos of them or even smelling their lovely fragrance is a little difficult. Still, they were beautiful to see.

While parts of the park are in a Japanese style, overall the park was designed in a Western style with a large grass area, venues for concerts and paths wide enough for horse drawn carriages.

While there are a lot of older things in the park, there are newer items. Like 古代スカンジナビア碑銘譯, the Scandinavia Rune Stone. Placed by the 心字池, Shinji Pond, in 1967, it commemorates the first flight between Europe and Japan back in 1957. I previously wrote about Shinji Pond in a 2018 post about Hibiya Park. That post is here http://blukats.blogspot.com/2018/04/hibiya-park.html.  The Japanese garden at Shinji Pond is definitely older. The pond was part of the moat for Hibiya Gate for Edo Castle, and part of the gate wall is still there too.

Even against grey skies, the ginkgo trees looked amazing. 

And so did all the trees. 

Hibiya Park

 Every trip I take I have a list of places I want to see. Some are not so exciting but still are interesting. With Tokyo, that list is very long. So this time I wanted to get to a number of places that I'd thought about for some time. Which is why I went to Tsukiji. That same day I decided I wanted to see a fountain.

 So a short subway ride and I was in Hibiya Park. Because there is a fountain there. I know there are other fountains in Tokyo but it's not so easy to find them.

Hibiya Park's Fountain is a bit easier to find. Just beyond it is the Hibiya Open Small Music Hall. 

Along with lots of lovely green trees. At night they have colored lighting. 

 I'd like to go back to see that. Hopefully it won't be raining. 

Besides the fountain there were hints of spring flowers. And a Tokyo Tower topiary. 

In fact, there was a lot of planting of flowers happening. And park maintenance. Lots of it. 

I thought maybe there would be sakura blooming. 

I'm sure these trees look amazing. When the skies are not so dark. 

I kept searching. And found some amazing trees just starting to show their beauty. 

Camellias were also beginning to bloom. The pretty little Craftsman style building just beyond is the Felice Garden, a wedding venue.   

I kept walking hoping to find something interesting. Since Hibiya Park is next to the Imperial Palace I wasn't surprised to find a moat wall here. 

This part of the park was constructed to reflect the type of garden that existed when the park was opened in 1903. The park had been part of estates back when Tokyo was Edo.

Even though the park and this garden were under maintenance, koi still swam in the pond. I understand there is a fountain in the pond but it looks like part of it was removed.

However there were still interesting things to see. Birds. Not the flock of pigeons that would not leave me alone. This large black bird across the pond. 

A Japanese cormorant. For most, we see them in fishing videos. So getting to see one like this was nice.

Along with this ghostly white bird. I knew it was a heron or egret. I've seen great egrets here in Oregon so being able to see an eastern great egret was also nice. In fact, this wasn't the only time I saw one on my trip.