The Garden of Words, a must-see in Tokyo

Nowadays Japan It is not only known for sushi, samurais or Fujisan, its sacred mountain and national icon, but also for the quality of its animated films and series. The anime has taken over the world for a long time and in fact, as soon as you arrive at the Narita International Airport you have the possibility of dedicating your trip to getting to know those places that the anime has made known throughout the world because a tourist map is offered about anime and manga.

Personally one of the anime movies that I have liked the most for a while now is The Garden of Words, a short creation set in one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan: the Shinjuku Gyo-in. Are you going to Japan? Then do not stop touring it.

The Garden of Words, anime

It is a brief 2013 animated film call in japanese Kotonoha no Niwto. It was written and directed by the great Makoto Shinkai and his original song is a wonderful thing that will linger in your head for a long time.

The story centers on a 15 year old boy named Takao Akizuki who dreams of being a designer and manufacturer of shoes and the strange relationship he has with a 27-year-old woman named Yukari Yukino. They meet in one of the elegant pavilions of Shinjuku Gyo-en and The beautiful park thus becomes the scene of a relationship that grows and takes hold despite everything, the mystery, the silence and the age difference.

The appointment is on rainy days. On June 1, the rainy season begins in Japan that lasts about a month where many days of the week are rainy. On those days, Takao always skips class and goes to the garden to design shoes and for some unknown reason and she never confesses it is those same rainy days that she falls in the garden to drink beer and eat chocolates. As if neither of them had other obligations or responsibilities.

Little by little the story is unraveling and the audience is learning other details. Yukino does not even tell him his name while Takao confesses absolutely all his dreams. Two lonely and sad people who slowly, with those meetings and those talks, are coming out of their crisis.

Towards the end of the film we find out that Yukino is actually a Japanese literature teacher at the same institute Takao attends, although he does not know her, and that he had problems with some jealous students, which is why he felt so bad that he stopped going to school. teaching.

While it rains and they share a lunch in Yukino's apartment, after a flood that forces them to run out of the park, Takao declares his love but Yukino maintains a distance that hurts the boy and makes him run after yelling at forty . Oh, the ending is wonderful because when you think that the thing ends there she runs after him in the rain. I'm not going to tell more because I don't want to spoil but…. do not miss it!

Shinjuku Gyo-en Garden

The natural setting for The Garden of Words is the beautiful park in this part of Tokyo, Shinjuku. In other times, more than a century ago, It was the garden of the rich Naito family but later it passed into the hands of the imperial family and later became public.

The layout of the garden dates from the second half of the 1906th century and a century later it was also a botanical garden. The current layout dates from XNUMX although the air raids of the Americans in 1945 destroyed it completely and it had to be rebuilt after the war. It was In 1949 it was opened to the public as the Shinjuku Gyoen, the "imperial garden."

This garden occupies almost 60 hectares and has a circumference of 3.5 kilometers. Three styles distinguish it, for a length there is a French garden sector, another Japanese and another English. If you go to Japan for the hanami, the traditional cherry blossom, this is a great place to see it. The Japanese sector has large ponds with islands and bridges and many pavilions. The French and English sectors are more open and wooded spaces.

The garden it has 20 thousand trees and among them more than half are cherry trees, there are also Himalayan cedars, cypresses and a beautiful nursery dating from the 50s and which is home to about 1700 tropical and subtropical species. Another good time to visit the garden is in autumn, for the ocher, yellow and red of the trees.

Visit Shinjuku Gyoen

The only negative is that this garden closes in my opinion very early: 4.30 pm. On spring or summer days it is very ugly not to be able to walk there so it is not understood why they do not extend the opening hours.

The garden It has three entrance gates, the Okido, the Shinjuku and the Sendagaya. Shinjuku Gate is just a ten minute walk from the JR Shinjuku New South Exit or five minutes from Shinjukugyoenmae Station on the Marunouchi Subway Line. Okido Gate is also a five minute walk from these stations and Sendagaya is the same from the station of the same name on the JR Chuo-Sobu Line.

You can enter from 9 am but do not go on Mondays because it is closed, except between the end of March and the beginning of April, for hanami, and at the beginning of November, which is open all week. The nursery closes earlier, at 4 pm.

The park opens from 9am to 4:30 pm although entry is allowed only until 4. Closed on mondays or the next day if Monday is a holiday and also from December 29 to January 3. The entrance is very cheap, barely 200 yen which is around 2 dollars.


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