Japanese Garden - Portland

The Japanese Garden is just one of the many beautiful gardens and parks in Portland, City of Roses. This garden is located in Washington Park, as is the Rose Test Garden. There is a small fee to enter the Japanese Garden, but it is well worth it. It is a work of art, in every detail. This, combined with its setting amid giant fir trees, makes it a welcome oasis close-in to an urban area.

The hardest thing to capture in these pictures is the quality of the light. Since it is filtering through the large trees above, even on a sunny day everything is bathed in a green glow.

There is a path through the garden, and every bend has another pond, a waterfall, a pathway made of carefully laid stone, a bridge. There are also many places to sit and rest, or meditate on the beauty.

There are traditional Japanese gardens, such as this flat garden, or the rock and sand garden. A brochure provided at the entry explains each major section of the garden, or you can take one of several guided tours conducted each day.

If we move to Portland, and there is a house we've found that we are seriously considering, I plan on buying an annual pass to the Japanese Garden. I could see spending many hours here.