Tsukuba Botanical Garden

Trip Start Sep 15, 2007

Trip End Nov 14, 2007

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Japan Tsukuba, Japan
Sunday, October 21, 2007

We had the nicest weather yet, so went for a bike ride over to the botanical garden here in town.

First, we checked out the yelling and singing we had heard coming from the fields behind our apartment. It turns out the local kindergarten down the road ... which is HUGE, with their own busses ... was having a sports/festival day. The kids were adorable with their multicolored caps and gym outfits. All the families were there with their folding tables, picnic lunches, and video cameras. The activities were still going on when we got back at 4:00 or so.

The botanical garden was a nice one for a relatively small town of 200,000. It wasn't anything spectacular, but was pleasant to stroll around and enjoy the nice day and the peaceful surroundings

Lined up by Cap Color

. They had different ecosystems represented and an amazing number and variety of species. The garden is used for research as well as public education. Most impressive were the 3 large greenhouses with tropical and desert savannah plants. They had some really interesting orchids blooming.

We then went for a ride back through the campus of Tsukuba University, which is a huge campus, with lots of big trees. We managed to get a flat tire on one of the bikes in the process ... ended up riding it back rather than figuring out how to deal with it there. We stopped at a French bakery (the Japanese love French pastries, and there are lots of good bakeries ... yum!) and bought some pastries to reward ourselves after our little adventure.

Slideshow