Inky Marina!

After our day trip to Victoria, Brooke and I had another adventure planned! We visited the Seattle Japanese Garden in Madison Park. The garden takes up 3.5 acres. It's very beautiful, with many beautiful plants, stones, and water features. Juki Iida designed the garden according to the Japanese idea of shizensa, which means the "essential quality of nature."


Brooke and I brought along my Instax Mini camera, which takes little Polaroid photos! We posed for photos all over the garden.  It's a beautiful place and I'm very happy that we decided to go together.


We visited the garden in July, when the plants were bright and green.  The garden staff encourages visitors to come back at different times of year, so that they can see the changes in the garden through the seasons.  I would love to go back again, but I loved seeing all the beautiful mosses and lichens in particular. They made the whole garden seem like a place where fairies would like to live!


What do you think it would be like to live in a place so beautiful? I love this picture because of the light and because of the ferns and moss.  Ferns remind me of dinosaurs. I learned once that ferns, which reproduce with spores instead of flowers, are one of the oldest types of plants. They were definitely around during the dinosaur times, which might be why they remind me of dinos! I have been learning a lot about moss lately too. I am reading a book called Gathering Moss, which is full of beautiful essays.  It's by an indigenous author who shares traditional knowledge of moss and other parts of nature.


There are a few bridges throughout the Japanese Garden. I like that they are low and not fancy; they seem just-right for the environment they're in! The pond in the middle of the garden has lots of fancy koi, or Japanese carp. They can grow very big. The Japanese Garden has koi of many different sizes in its pond!


Before long, we had completed the loop on the path through the garden. The Seattle Japanese Garden is a strolling garden, which means you can walk through it and admire all the different parts. It was so nice to go! I loved seeing all the different things growing there. The rocks were beautiful too. If you visit Seattle, I recommend going to the garden!

Have you ever been to a Japanese garden? Did it look like the one I visited?