Since the Tokugawa Museum gardens are lit up at night during the autumn leaf-viewing season and I need a change of pace from dinner followed by TV or laundry or recording the day in my journal, I ask the front desk to hail a cab.
Tokugawa Museum Garden on a November Night.
Photo credit to www.nagoya-info.jp/en/
The air is chilly, but dry. Bundled up in my down vest and jacket I’m quite comfortable as I wander through the garden and enjoy the interplay of light and darkness and reflections. I watch couples on dates, photographers carefully setting sophisticated cameras on tripods and people of all ages simply meandering along the pathways instead of sitting inside at home.
Date at Tokugawa Museum Garden
There aren’t many people here this week-day evening, and I see no other (visibly) foreign visitors. Except for the photographers with a mission, I don’t see many people alone either. But it doesn’t matter to me. The night is lovely and the pavilion across the water appreciably different from anything I could experience on a November night at home.
Tokugawa Museum Garden Night View
For the locals wandering about, I wonder whether it could all be quite mundane. Should we visit the Tokugawa Museum Garden light-up tonight? Not tonight, dear. I have a headache. Besides, we saw it last year.
Why is it that from one’s home-base it is all too easy to park on the couch and ignore the opportunity to experience beauty?