MAR 13, Japan Visit: Tokyo, the Emperors' P(a)lace

THE IMPERIAL PALACE

en route to the Imperial Palace:
piney parks for picnicking

entrance gate
(we had not received a personal invitation)

samurai checkpoint

stone blocks used in construction
weighed up to 35 tonnes.

lots of ponds, as well as moats

  

"Tractor-seat plant" , apparently an
imperial fave

 a few weedy spots

colorful azaleas coming into full bloom

very large koi

golden koi

CLASSIC JAPANESE HAIKU, in translation

 

I write, erase, rewrite,

erase again, and then

a poppy blooms.

Kobayashi Issa

TODAY'S POEM  (senryu *) 

syllabary of hiragana and katakana

 

to write smatterings,

I learn kanji characters

and two alphabets.

Giorgio Coniglio

* learn more HERE about senryu, a term that designates a lesser-known Japanese short poem that shares the physical characteristics of haiku (nominally 17 'on' / syllables in three non-rhyming lines), but deals in a satiric or humorous way with human foibles rather than with Nature. 

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