Zen Memories and Feng Shui of The Japanese Friendship Gardens: Peace Personified

Balboa Park in San Diego, California is a cultural mecca with something interesting for everyone. Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting the expansive park that covers about 1,200 acres. It is a lush, green, tree-filled, flower-filled oasis located within the bustling city. It is peace personified. If you didn’t know better you would think you were out in the middle of the country instead of in a major metropolitan area. You would think you were in a children’s storybook, in a land where the trees whisper and the rocks sing.

I loved everything about Balboa Park. From the hands-on Museum of Science to the San Diego Museum of Art, to the Automotive Museum, it was all fascinating. What I loved most about Balboa Park, though, was The Japanese Friendship Garden. The Japanese Friendship Garden is perfect in every sense. So perfect, that when I look back at some of my pictures they almost look fake, as if they are tiny scenes arranged in a terrarium.

At the entrance of the Japanese Friendship Garden is a little restaurant with outdoor seating called The Tea Pavillion. It serves a myriad of teas along with other beverages, and it also serves food. I tried the miso soup which was delicious and comforting, one of the best I’ve had. Everything seems to taste better when what you’re surrounded by is aesthetically pleasing. From there you find yourself standing at the top of the garden on a meandering path that slowly winds down through a meticulously manicured landscape. Let me tell you, I’m not a fan of clutter so I was in Heaven at this clearly well-loved garden. I appreciate the Feng Shui, and I could easily live there.

Within the relaxing Zen-like landscape you hear water trickling from peaceful streams, you smell the sweet scent of jasmine in the air, and you see the beauty of nature caressed and guided with a soft, mindful human hand. This is what life is supposed to be like.

I must have taken fifty or more pictures of the garden, futilely trying to capture the feeling of being there in that tranquil landscape. As the saying goes, pictures never do justice. They are a happy reminder, though.

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Ponds and streams of koi fish throughout the gardens

Peaceful man in the distance

An entire area devouted to Bonsai plants

Personal touches like this throughout

My family walking away

All photos taken with my phone's camera. Thank you for reading.