BALBOA PARK-JAPANESE GARDEN

 Paul and I visited Balboa Park on a pleasant afternoon in February.  The Japanese Friendship Garden (“the Garden”) is an expression of friendship between San Diego and its sister city, Yokohama. It illustrates two cultures and creates an immersive experience into Japanese culture. The Garden’s design is based on centuries-old Japanese techniques adapted to San Diego’s climate and plants and seeks to foster a relationship between humans and nature, providing a respite attuned to Japanese simplicity, serenity, and aestheticism.

The Garden sits on a 12-acre plot. It offers a variety of educational programs, exhibits, and festivals as well as accredited horticultural classes to enhance and deepen visitor appreciation for Japanese culture. As a valued community resource, it is well known for its unique setting, stone arrangements, koi ponds, water features, sukiya-style buildings and landscape.

Bonsai means tray planting and is the art of dwarfing trees or plants by pruning and training in containers.

There was an interesting display of Japanese ceramics on display in the pavilion

Tray made by Dot Kimura, a neighbor friend


Tea and sweets were served to guests after a tea ceremony

Japanese kimono

Details of this kimono

We also visited the  Museum of Photographic Arts which is one of the first museum facilities in the United States exclusively designed to collect and present the finest examples of photographic art, spanning the history of photography from the 19th century to the present day.  The museum’s has one of the largest photography collections in the country and is a destination for scholars, researchers and professional photographers.  There was an exhibit of some photographs by Ansel Adams.

Ansel Adams photo-Clearing storm, Sonoma County

Another interesting large photo was a large composite of hill views that took on the look of range of hills

Composite photo

Section of Composite photo with a "forest" of power lines