Photos from our trip to the Chinese and Japanese Gardens
Saturday, August 20, 2005

Saturday, on an overcast and rainy day, we visited the Chinese Gardens and the accompanying, smaller, Japanese Gardens.  Somehow, we did not get any pictures of the life-sized cloth animals that will serve as lanterns during the September Lantern Festival.  They were everywhere, too.  Amazing, beautiful creations of wire and cloth, that will be lit from the inside at night.  There were elephants, giant Conan-fighting-sized snakes, hippos in the water, monkeys, dinosaurs, even a werewolf.  All we have of them, in these photos, are the dragons spiraling around the Chinese pagoda.  One of those deals, I guess, where you're so amazed by something you actually forget to take a picture of it.  Ah well.

First, as usual, a couple of pictures from home--

Above is our view from the balcony, showing some of the thousands of high-rise housing units all over the island, as well as some of the lush forest behind us.

And here are two of the banana-colored birds that tweet in those trees all the time: 

--except when the giant black bird comes in and scares them away, every so often.

Okay, at the Chinese Garden. 

See the dragons spiraling around the walkways of the pagoda, behind me?  They're lanterns!  They will be all lit up, like the tunnel they're building behind me there, and all the animals.  Amazing.

At the gate leading into the back half of the Gardens.

Checking out the bonsai trees--small plants carefully shaped to look like big trees.  The Chinese invented it and have another name for it, which I forget.  The Japanese imported it and call it "bonsai."  The ants like it because it makes them feel huge.

The bonsai garden.

A cool gate in the garden.

Chillin' in the Garden.

I hope I'm not standing on any dragon's tail this time.  But the likelihood seems high.  You're supposed to feel all relaxed and tranquil here, but, unfortunately, I was feeling hungry!  Time to go find food, before I batter and deep-fry a bonsai tree.

A little pagoda thingy up on a cliff, with a waterfall in front of it.  You could go behind the waterfall through a tunnel and cave, and pretend to be watching Gollum catching fish.  Um, maybe that last part is just me.

And one last shot from the Chinese and Japanese Gardens, of a bonsai tree pretending it is a real tree.