I am visiting California for my son’s wedding. Today we went to the Japanese Tea Garden which is situated with in the Golden Gate Park, San Francisco The park was a good 30 min walk from our Airbnb in Cole Valley.
The park was originally commissioned for the Midwinter international Exposition of 1894. The garden consists of twisting paths, ‘tranquil coy ponds and carefully manicured trees’ ( Kristen Malsberger 2014).
The garden was restored in 1952 after the war. There is a very pretty bridge called ‘Drum Bridge’ which has a dramatic curve to allow boats to pass easily underneath. It’s also called the ‘Moon bridge’ because the arch is reflected in the pool creating an unbroken circle. One of its main purposes is to slow people down during their walk around the gardens
I had my heart in my mouth whilst my 82 yr old Dad climbed down it
There is a plaque next to the bridge which tells you a little bit about its history – Shinshichi Nakatani designed and built the bridge. He constructed it in Japan, dismantled it and brought back to the USA. Halfway through completion, the Midwinter Expo ran out of funds. Shinshichi returned to Japan and sold off personal land to pay for the rest of the project. It took 50yrs for him to save up enough money to by back his land.
Sacrifice indeed http://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/the-drum-bridge-at-the-japanese-tea-garden.html
Detail of a gate
Pagoda (1915)
Detail from the gate
Crockery and tea – from our tea tasting – we also had fortune cookies…….
‘ an alien of some sort will be appearing to you shortly’
‘Today is a good time to take some extra relaxation’
My favourite thing to take photos of were the large Coy Carp
tesswyatt's Blog 
These photos are fabulous! We’d gone on an RV trip up past San Francisco to the city I was born, San Rafael and didn’t have time for the Japanese Garden although one of our sons had visited and insisted we stop by. We drove up to it and took photos of the entrance since we lacked the time for a tour! I’m so glad you took these photos and blogged about it so I could see what I missed. The bridge and coy pond are gorgeous! I hope you might be able to come down to Southern California on your next trip. We have more sun and lots of sights to see. Our balboa park was built up around the 1915 Panama California Exposition. The architecture is a wonderful Spanish style and it’s filled with museum and gardens. Our Sam Diego zoo is phenomenal. I hope you’re enjoying your time here in California as much as I’m enjoying your pictures! -take care, Barb