Hakone Gardens, located in Saratoga, is a beautiful Japanese garden. We decided to visit it and had a great experience! I'll tell you all about it below and of course include pictures!
We decided to go on a weekend, so it was very crowded. If you go on a week day it may tend to be less crowded due to people working, but still be careful if you want to go. Besides the crowds, the flowers (such as the wisteria seen in the picture on the left) were almost towards the end of their season. In Japan cherry blossom season is pretty much over as it starts a little after mid-March so makes sense as it's already the end of April. Still, it was a beautiful garden with amazing scenery. My personal favorite spot had to be the bamboo forest. It was enjoyable to see the bamboo so high. I'd also never seen anything like that so I liked it a lot. I also loved seeing the wisteria and taking in the view of the pond down below from the building you see in the picture up above. I would highly recommend taking pictures as there's so much to see, you'll want to snap a picture to remember! Of course a highlight of a Japanese garden is the Koi Pond. I love seeing the Koi Fish and some day aspire to have my own koi fish pond!
Besides all the lovely flowers, there's also a few zen gardens and traditional Japanese building you can take a look at. I like zen gardens a lot because of the amazing effort put into the rocks. Plus it can be super calming! Just be sure to be quiet as to not disturb others (if there's anyone else there). Another great thing to do while you're there is take a short walk up the hill. Tea ceremonies used to be held in a small building on the hill, but due to COVID they've currently been stopped. Not sure if they'll return, but I certainly hope they do! I did enjoy the little walk we took up there and the views dazzled us. Definitely another highlight of the trip. Finally, you can't complete your trip without a visit to the gift shop. I absolutely love looking at all the tea sets and will sometimes indulge in buying a pair of chopsticks! You can never have too many chopsticks you know! I will include more pictures below, but otherwise go ahead and check out the Hakone Garden! It's a tranquil place with beautiful wisteria and other flowers. It's a recommendation for me if you love these types of gardens, or just want to enjoy some time walking about in a serene atmosphere.
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