We recently watched a Japanese anime film directed by Makoto Shinkai called “The Garden of Words”. We were blown away by the gorgeous artwork, landscapes and imagery depicted in the film! It was extra special for us because most of the film takes place in the beautiful “Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden” which we visited last year when we traveled to Tokyo! As soon as the main character Takao entered the park, we recognized it immediately and got excited….isn’t it special when you’ve visited a place from a beloved movie or television show? Don’t even get me started on how excited I was when we visited “Stars Hollow” on the Warner Brothers Studio Tour since “Gilmore Girls” is my favourite show of all time!
We thought we would share some photos that Ryan took from our Tokyo trip when we visited these beautiful gardens in case any of you have seen the film or are planning to see it! Here are the gates upon entering the park…
The garden is incredibly lush and it was so relaxing just walking along the paths.
We saw many artists who would sit and draw or paint the landscapes before them. It was neat peeking over the shoulders to see their work!
These gardens are a popular spot during cherry blossom season- I can only imagine how breathtaking it would be….I hope to visit again one day to see the cherry blossoms all in bloom!
We spent some time in this pagoda to soak in the scenery (it’s in the movie too!). It’s hard to imagine that all of this lushness and peacefulness can be found right in the middle of the busy metropolis of Tokyo. In this way, it kind of reminded me of New York City’s Central Park!
Here I am walking along a little bridge that leads to a gazebo that plays a significant role in the movie! I can’t believe we actually took pictures here….after watching the movie, we totally went back through our photos to see where exactly we had visited!
This is the gazebo where the two main characters meet! It just so happens that my brother Corey was resting here when Ryan snapped a photo, hehe 🙂 You can see this gazebo in the movie poster for “The Garden of Words” at the beginning of this post!
Going to Tokyo was our “babymoon”, or our last trip before baby Myla came! I was 5 months pregnant with our little sweet pea during this time….I can’t believe she will be 1 year old in about a week! Just as everyone says, time really does fly by…
We love traveling, and we often reminisce about our fun trip to Japan! Japan is beautifully depicted in “The Garden of Words”, so do check it out if you come across it (it’s a super short movie at only 46 mins long)! Apparently the backgrounds in the movie were based on photographs of the park, and you can see how realistic and beautiful the animation is with this comparison HERE. Have any of you visited Japan or visited the Shinjuku Gyoen National Park before? If you’re planning a trip, you must stop by these gardens for a breath of fresh air and a chance to soak in some beautiful scenery!
