Kyoto Garden

Kyoto is located in Central Japan and was once the capital of the country for over one thousand years, beginning from late 8th century. The city is filled with an abundance of Japanese style gardens as well as rich heritage of highly skilled traditional garden construction methods. 

The Kyoto Garden in Holland Park was built by a Japanese Garden designer and his team to celebrate the Japan Festival in London in 1992. Japanese gardens are built in a way that shows respect and admiration for natural forms such as trees and rocks. The Kyoto Garden is in 'tour garden' style, one of the typical styles of Japan. The trees are trimmed to emphasise their natural shape. The three-step waterfall symbolises steep mountains and deep gouges which the pond depicts a vast ocean view. This garden gets more beautiful with time and the ever changing climate as the natural forms change parallel to these two factors. This emphasises the importance of the Japanese style gardens concentration on natural forms. 

The zen, tranquil feeling you get whilst sitting or wandering in this garden is like other. You are warned as you walk in that it is a place of peace and you can tell that people respect that and allow everyone to get the full enjoyment of peace and quiet in the hustle and bustle of London and get transported to a foreign place. 

It's places like this which make me fall in love with London even more. The city has essences of different cultures scattered around like little hidden gems which so true admiration for cultures of the world. It fills my thirst and ache for a distant place for the duration I am there and teaches me new aspects of foreign cultures that I would have probably only ever found out if I visited the country. 

I spent the afternoon in the Kyoto Garden reading King Lear by the waterfall. My body was in a Japanese garden whilst my mind was being transported back to Shakespearian England and it was a wonderful mixture. I enjoy nothing more than escapism and being surrounded by nature. You will be surprised how much you miss nature once you move to a big city. 

Feeling extremely zen right now. This is my new happy place. 

(I look like a little monkey in the wild in that photo)