Finally We Can Cross The Japanese Garden Off Our List

Last weekend, after twenty years in Seattle, we visited the Japanese Garden in the Arboretum. We're not sure why it took so long -- maybe because there's so much free outdoors stuff and there's a $5 admission. Maybe because we don't visit the Arboretum [maps!] that often, either. But we bought a bike again recently and now we're a huge cyclist, sometimes going on rides that last more than fifteen minutes each way! Plus, we get a perverse thrill at backing up traffic taking their shortcut through the Arboretum. God help us we love it so! We dawdle, we swerve, we take in the air.

So anyway, the Japanese Garden, right. As you can see there are ducks involved, and a flotilla of oversized goldfish (we're using goldfish in the non-technical sense, meaning "large shiny colorful whozits") that swim up to you and demand the contents of your lunch sack. Turtles sun themselves on rocks. Even with tourists it's peaceful and serene -- and there are plenty of nooks and overviews back from the duck-and-turtle action where you can ponder the flitting, vagabond nature of life and work on haikus. We recommend it anytime of year; it's probably even good in the rain. If you can't make it in the near future, we have more photos apres le saut.