Maruyama Park, like much of Kyoto is compact and perfectly arranged, paths direct you politely towards the highlights, or the best places to view them, but there are artfully arranged smaller paths that offer solitude as well. There’s a tea house at the top and the main entrance, by the Yasaka Shrine, at the bottom, but there are east and west gates as well, leading towards other shrines.

Cherry blossom season is when this park comes into its own, but it was still beautiful on a wet, afternoon in mid autumn, bamboo fences keep you from trailing onto the gardens, with the same kind of obeyed politeness that signs in Japan, requesting people not to use their mobile phones on the train, are adhered to.

The loveliness is organised and shown in its best light, like the geishas who have walked the grounds, and this is a prime example of the Japanese love of the aesthetic and loveliness because why wouldn’t you?

Written by  Kat Mackintosh.

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