Omiya: a Bonsai Village

I am still (!) writing about April 26, 2017 (our 6th day in Japan).  This entry is about the afternoon of that day and is the last visit we made that day.  This is really a rather remarkable place.  In 1923 there was a severe earthquake in Japan, and a group of professional bonsai gardeners decided to move to a less earthquake prone place and establish a village for bonsai gardeners.  They developed some guidelines for people who wanted to move into the village:

Upon its founding, the village had four residence requirements:

1. Possession of 10 or more bonsai

2. Agreeing to open their gardens to the public

3. No two-story houses

4. The use of hedges as live fencing

But first there are some photos from our way to the village.  After we left Kobayashi's nursery, I took some photos (surprise!), but I have no idea exactly where they were taken.  David might know, but he's "resting his eyes" right now. It doesn't make too much difference to the first photo which I think might have been taken outside Kobayashi's azalea garden.

Which is also probably where I saw these koi.  I've been taking a lot of photographs of these fish, but their colors vary a lot making them quite interesting.

This is a scroll that was hanging next to a bonsai tree very much like the one in the scroll.

A chrysanthemum stone - quite beautiful and revered as a "companion" for a bonsai.

Another lovely scroll . . .

On our way to our final tour destination, we went through an area near Tokyo's harbor, and I took some pictures through the bus window. This one I like because of the curving roads (I count the one on the far right) and the Ferris wheel.

The skyline comprised of very new buildings except for the warehouse with the kanji (Japanese script).

Here's one I really love!  As we rode away from the busy part of the harbor, there were docks for small boats and here I saw one lone fisherman.

Once we arrived at Omiya, I took several photos but very few of bonsai.  David noted at the end of this day's log entry,"One can become bonsai-numb."  !!!  And I was, too.  So here are some more scrolls.

A picture of the only female bonsai apprentice I saw on our trip:

And two gorgeous tree peonies:

 Followed by a pretty color combination: