Secret Garden

06 Jul 2006

Have you ever come across a corner of your own city or town that you didn't know about? Some small nugget of detail that's a new discovery? On the weekend I discovered this, the Himeji Garden. I was driving along the parklands, along a corner of the city that wasn't part of any usual routes when I noticed this ornate gateway. I pulled over for a look and happened upon this beautiful little Japanese garden, complete with small lake, pine trees, rock garden and deer scarer.

What's a 'deer scarer' you say? You'd know it if you saw it, it's a stereotypical bamboo water feature, but the garden brochure explains it like so:

Originally developed by farmers as a means of scaring off deer and wild boar, the large bamboo tube fills with water until horizontal and then empties causing one end to hit a rock with a 'clack'.

The annoying thing of the day happened just after I'd stopped to investigate the gateway. I got out of the car and as I walked off I heard a bit of a hiss from the other side of the car. At first I thought it was some kind of gas/air leak from a near-by pipe, but not surprisingly when I looked round my tyres it was coming from the left rear one! "Shit, guess I'm replacing that when I come back," I said to myself, and off I went to the garden.
(Thanks to the couple who lent me their prying tyre-iron, my hubcaps are impossible to remove without something like that and if they hadn't checked their tool-kit I would have been walking home!)

Oh, and I accept that view through the gateway is a little burned out, but I like the contrast between the shadowy entrance and the brightness of the promise beyond.

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Now endorsed by my mum: "I love it!" she said.