The tidal pond
Fed by the sea.
Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Armandas Jarusauskas — CC BY 2.0 · Daderot — CC0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0
A broad garden of about 25 hectares at the mouth of the Sumida River on Tokyo Bay, laid out on the site of a 17th-century villa of the ruling Tokugawa family. In 1654 Tokugawa Tsunashige, a shōgun's son, was allowed to reclaim land from the bay for a villa and garden, which later became a secondary residence where the shōguns practised falconry. Its highlight is the Shioiri-no-ike, a pond whose level rises and falls with the tide because it is fed by seawater, and a seawater moat surrounds the garden. A teahouse in the middle of the pond, reached by two bridges, serves matcha and Japanese sweets in the tea-ceremony style. The garden also has a plum grove, a peony garden, flower fields for every season and old pines, with the skyscrapers of Shiodome rising behind in a striking contrast of old and new. It opened to the public on 1 April 1946. Admission is 300 yen, and it opens 9:00-17:00 (last entry 16:30), per visitor guides. It is a walk from Shiodome Station, or a river-boat ride from Asakusa.
Fed by the sea.
Matcha on the pond.
Pines and skyscrapers.
Mouth of the Sumida River, Chūō ward, near Shiodome
Its pond rises and falls with the tide because it is fed by seawater, a teahouse in the middle serves matcha, and the old garden contrasts with Shiodome's skyscrapers behind it.
