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Published: September 21st 2013
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September 18, 2013
We negotiate the one ways and the “no turns between 8.23 and 10.04” (or whatever) and finally manage to pick my parents up outside their hotel just a few blocks away. Normally, to avoid the nightmare that is driving in downtown Vancouver, they’ve been walking to us but this morning we make the necessary exception as they have their luggage and struggling along busy pavements with 2 suitcases is obviously not an option.
We head for a new destination for all of us, the Nitobe Japanese Gardens located in UBC at the very end of Kitsilano. It’s not expensive ($15 for the family) but is relatively small so it doesn’t take us very long to walk around, even allowing for all the photos we take.
The gardens are considered to be one of the best traditional Japanese gardens in North America and among the top five outside Japan so we figure it must be worth a look.
The Shinto-style garden is indeed a tranquil oasis within the University grounds, with its ceremonial Tea House (sadly not actually serving tea, which would have be lovely!) and an authentic Zen garden.
Interestingly, as
City skyline
Jericho Beach, Vancouver it is a Zen garden, carefully designed down to the every last stone and leaf, there is no interpretive signage in the garden (“To have nothing is to have everything” Zen Koan) so we carry a leaflet (which also makes typing this much easier afterwards!)
The use of Symbolism within the garden is interesting and although I won’t bore the reader with too much detail (this being a travel blog on a 3 month trip in the Pacific Northwest rather than a lecture on Zen Buddhism) I will however pick my favourites 😉
For example the various bridges within the garden - water crossings – reflect the different stages in life such as marriage, spiritual growth etc and the waterfalls (my personal favourite!) illustrate the male and female traits of nature in the Shinto religion, the masculinity and strength of the waterfall contrasting with the feminine and calm stream.
The garden may be interpreted as a symbolic journey through life and at one point there is a junction, the left leading to a bridge and the right leading to a dead-end which may represent the way of teenage rebellion! The area around the bench seems a little
My boys
Nitobe Japanese Gardens disorderly but it provides a clear view of the garden and the “journey of life” travelled so far. Fascinating!
Thankfully the weather is being kind to us; the sun is out and sprinkles its light down through the mass of cedars and hemlocks creating a wonderful variety of dappled earthy greens and sun soaked spots throughout the garden.
The boys discover the inevitable collection of koi and seem genuinely taken with the garden.
Feeling calm and spiritually sated we pick up coffees and lunch at a Safeway and head down to Jericho Beach where we enjoy the warm sun and the fabulous view of the now visible mountains (finally confirming their existence) and then head down to Steveston, the tiny fishing “village” in Richmond, south of the airport. This is no Cornish fishing village but it’s a rather pleasant spot to hang out for a while and it’s been developed quite a bit (in a good way) since we were last here. Attractive apartment blocks are springing up along the river and with it a boardwalk, a real improvement as it means the chance to properly stroll along the front whereas before, Steveston, although appealing, just didn’t
Mum and the boys
Nitobe Japanese Gardens seem big enough to warrant much of a stay.
As well as very reasonably priced tourist shops (!) we also discover delicious ice creams in handmade (on the spot) waffles, still warm when they fill it with ice cream but not so warm as to end up with nothing but a drained waffle and a leg full of runny praline caramel ice cream.
Finally we say our goodbyes at the airport. Unlike our farewells of 20 or so years ago we’re not actually living here so although it feels kind of sad (mainly because Mum and Dad would prefer to be staying!) we’ll be seeing them in just over a month (or in a day or so when we skype each other!).
The four of us head back into town and treat ourselves to the Mongolian BBQ again. It’s the ‘all you can eat’ evening meal this time as opposed to the ‘one bowl’ and although we
don’t, the fact that we
can eat more than one bowl means we have to pay $11.99 instead of $7.99. Ah well, still cheap at half the price.
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