Today is Greenery Day, the first of the official Golden Week holidays. We got a jump on it by strolling through Koishikawa Korakuen this weekend.
This is the oldest park in Tokyo and was laid out by a Chinese landscaper for the Tokugawa clan in 1629. It's full of water and bridges, minature mountains, shrines and all of the wonderful variety of plants and trees that make Japanese gardens so enjoyable.
And it's a short ten minute walk from our apartment. What a treasure. From inside the garden, you can view the local skyline--Tokyo Dome sports complex hovers like a giant cloud above the tops of the trees and the Tokyo Dome Hotel tower shows its profile.
The name, Korakuen, comes from a Chinese poem and means "a pleasure afterward." The poem, as translated in the garden's brochure, is oddly discouraging. Be the first to take the world's trouble to heart, be the last to enjoy the world's pleasure. Doesn't that mean you'll be the one to shoulder the world's troubles the longest?
Maybe the second part of the line means you should enjoy the earth longer than anyone else, maybe take more pleasure from the earth than others, rather than be the last person allowed to enjoy all it has to offer?
I think it means that if you are full of worry and fear about the world problems (or just the problems in your own life), you won't see or enjoy the beauty of the world that is all around you. In other words, if the first thing you see is the problems, then the last things you'll see is the beauty. Look for all the good things first, then the bad doesn't seem so bad. It will give you a different perspective on things.