Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sundays in My City, The Japanese Tea Garden, 5-23-10



Sundays in My City, The Japanese Tea Garden, 5-23-10


San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden has the distinction of being the oldest Japanese garden in the United States.  It was originally built  as the Japanese Village for the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition.  Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant, was officially appointed caretaker in 1894 and remained so until 1925.  He continued to live at and maintain the gardens until forced into an internment camp in 1942 with other Japanese Americans.

The introduction of fortune cookies to the United States was made in conjunction with this garden.  There is a tea house on the premises serving green teas and other beverages and a selection of Japanese confections.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, admission is free, if you arrive  by 9AM.

Recently, Joanne Olivieri ( Poetic Shutterbug, author of "Nameless Faces," a new book of poetry ) and I took advantage of the free admission on a Friday morning and had a wonderful visit, armed with our cameras.


Pagodas at the Japanese Tea Garden

 Willow reflection in pond

The Taiko-Baishi Drum Bridge from the 1894 Exposition

The teahouse


Meija era (1868–1912) large bronze lantern


Japanese maple




In 1949, the S & G Gump Company of San Francisco, gave a large bronze Buddha to the
garden.  It was originally cast at Tajima, Japan in 1790.





Purple iris and fern






Sundays in my City, brought to you by Unknown Mami

. Check her out and other fabulous shots from around the world!

41 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:54 AM

    Carmen, this is a treat to see in the morning. What a wonderful place to spend Friday, and your photos are gorgeous!

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  2. A place full of peace and natural beauty. Japanese know how find the center of our calm.

    Regards
    [Barcelona Daily Photo]

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  3. Free admission to a Japanese garden! Life doesn't get much better than that. They sure know how to arrange things for serenity.

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  4. wanna enjoy the japanese romance...God please send me there one day with my beloved family


    regards
    arief, car dolly owner

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  5. Beautiful,lovely and fantastic shots !!I am impressed !!Great Explanation !!Loved it !!

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  6. One of the goals on my list this year for visits. I would love to see the SF Japanese Garden, don't remember if I had seen it or not. We have one in San Jose, but because it has been in ronovation the past year, there's very little now, I can't wait until it is in full swing again.

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  7. The pagoda and buddha shots are wonderful, Carmen. That was a fun and inspiring little trek we had there.

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  8. Outstanding photos, it was almost like being there! Glad you joined in SMIC and showed us around. THANKS!
    jj

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  9. Beautiful presentation. I enjoyed all your photo's!

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  10. oh my goodness, those photos are amazing. and now i know about the evolution of the fortune cookie to america. seriously, those photos captured my imagination. i may get inspired to do a post soon based on those photos. what a treat. thanks.

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  11. Oh so beautiful and it looks very peaceful. Thanks for sharing it with us x

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  12. Wow I loved reading about it and my gosh those are beautiful photos!

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  13. I lived in the Bay area as a kid (Mare Island Naval Base) and I used to love this garden. I took my kids to see i when we visit San Francisco several years ago.

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  14. WOW Carmen, this is astounding. I had no idea there was a piece of Japanese paradise in the States.
    I would love to see that!

    thanks for sharing your pics with us.
    hugs :)

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  15. What a fantastic place and fabulous photos! It has always been an ambition of mine to visit San Francisco.

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  16. What a great view with those pagodas in the middle of a forest. Thank you for this walk, it's been delightful!

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  17. Icy BC - this was really a beautiful place for photography. I will go back again soon.

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  18. Irredento Urbanita - it is nice that we have this bit of Japan in our city. I agree with you about the Japanese creating a sense of calm. I was fortunate enough to make two very short visits to Japan in the past five years and I was so amazed at how beautiful everything was...just simple things are lovely and serene.

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  19. Sharkbytes - another plus to going early, besides getting in free, was the lack of crowds - so you could get nice photographs without people in them.

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  20. arief - I do hope I can get back to Japan someday where I have more than a rushed 5 - 7 day visit. I'd like to stay in some of the
    ryokans and visit several of the islands.

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  21. Unseen Rajasthan - I wish you could get to San Francisco so you could see the Japanese Tea Garden and the rest of our fair city in person, Rajesh.

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  22. What a beautiful place to visit. Thank you for sharing with SIMC. Have a beautiful week. xxx

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  23. Self Sagacity - I didn't realize you are in San Jose...I'm in Daly City which, you probably know, is a huge Filipino community. In fact, my neighborhood grocery is Manila Market. I just love it, especially for all the wonderful Asian greens.

    We'll have to get together sometime! We could meet halfway or, if you come into San Francisco sometime, let me know. Poetic Shutterbug would probably join us.

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  24. Poetic Shutterbug - I'm trying to get all the comments answered for our Japanese Tea Garden outing. Folks really enjoyed our pictures there. It was a really nice day. We'll have to do it again.

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  25. Joanna Jenkins - the Sunday in My City seems like a nice meme. I'll try to participate in it more often. The San Francisco area is such a lovely part of the country and a mecca of photographic beauty.

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  26. Travelingjoan - my camera seems to be on the blitz after being dropped one too many times. About half my photos were blurry and not even good enough to use. Good thing I took so many!

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  27. Ed Pilolla - I see that you moved to California from Chicago. When you visit San Francisco sometime, you'll have to go to the Japanese Tea Garden and the neighboring Botannical Gardens..great place for photographs. Of course, the whole city is just beautiful. I fell in love with it when I had a layover, at 18, en route to Hawaii and spent a few hours, in a taxi, sightseeing. I knew, then, that I'd live here someday. I've been here over 33 years now ( I'm 65! ) and I still am in love with the Bay area.

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  28. Lee Ann - The Japanese Tea Garden is wonderful but it can be so hectic later in the day when the tourist season is in full swing.

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  29. Sonya - it's hard to go wrong with pictures when you pick a locale like the Japanese Tea Garden! There are many other such vistas in our area.

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  30. secret agent woman - I first visited the Japanese Tea Garden forty seven years ago when I vacation in San Francisco. I have always loved Japan and the culture and art. I didn't get to Japan until 2005 and it was such a thrill - so much serenity and beauty everywhere. I'm glad we have a little piece of it in San Francisco.

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  31. Welshcakes Limoncello - would I ever love to have you visit San Francisco!! It would be such a thrill to actually meet you in person and to play tour guide! A trip to the Napa Valley would definitely be high on the list!

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  32. Dulce - I am waiting for you to write and say you're headed this way!

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  33. fullet - you know that Poetic Shutterbug and I would like nothing more than to give you a personal tour of our area of the world. There is so much to see and do here - I could even send you out with my sons so you could see things from a younger perspective as well! Their Spanish is better than mine - though none of us are Catalan speakers...we could learn a bit from you!

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  34. Raymonde - I have just visited your beautiful blog and am so enchanted by your photography. Thanks for coming to see San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden!

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  35. What a zen-ish, relaxing, beautiful atmosphere to be in...

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  36. I absolutely love this place! I will never tire of it. You got some amazing shots. I was just by there today. Thank you for sharing.

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  37. P.S. I hope you do SIMC again. As a Bay Area resident I would love to see more of your pics.

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  38. C - the Japanese Tea Garden is a lovely place. Its peace can be somewhat disrupted during the busiest part of tourist season when it becomes so crowded. I like it best early in the morning when it first opens and early spring and late fall.

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  39. Unknown Mami - I am glad you liked my photos of the Japanese Tea Garden - I will definitely be back to do Sunday in My City again! It's a fun meme...sorry I never saw it before.

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  40. Yes. This space has taste very much.

    Japanese maple is good for the garden...

    Thank you for introducing wonderful landscape gardening.

    ruma

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