Originally our plan was to take the ferry from Matsuyama over to Hiroshima, but we instead headed back to Osaka and took a day off to do laundry, get groceries, and give the kids a day of rest. This pushed our visit to Hiroshima back by a day, but we went nonetheless.
Our first stop on the itinerary was Shukkeien gardens.
Shukkeien gardens was a quiet, hidden gem when we visited some twenty years ago. Now there are signs everywhere leading to the gardens and, ugh, tourists. Even so the style of garden makes it easy to find quiet places to sit and appreciate the beauty.
The garden itself is built around a very large pond. The widest point is traversed by a moon-shaped stone bridge, and the pond is home to many koi and turtles. And opportunistic pigeons. Small sachets of koi food are sold at the gate for 100 yen. The kids had fun taking photos of the garden, and Locke had a knack for finding and photographing the fish. The park is bordered on the outside by one of the many rivers in Hiroshima.
There is a colorful flower garden near the entrance, but as we were visiting while it was still technically winter, it wasn’t as abundant as it will be in a few weeks. It was surprising to me how much the kids enjoyed the garden, and we managed to spend a couple of hours simply touring the grounds.
