Mukojima Hyakkaen Gardens: The Hagi Tunnel

Mukojima Hyakkaen, the only surviving flower garden from the Edo Period, is pleasantly natural and features flowers and plants mentioned in classic Chinese and Japanese works of literature.  The 29 stone monuments scattered around the garden looked something like Stations of the Cross to me but each is dedicated to a famous Japanese literary figure of the past.

My Flower Lover's Guide to Tokyo recommends this garden as a good place to see hagi or bush clover blooming in late September.  The main attraction this time of year is a hagi-covered bamboo tunnel about thirty meters long but on evenings in late August the City of Tokyo hosts gatherings to listen to crickets and other insects released throughout the grounds.  I'm not terribly sorry I missed that event.

The tunnel of bush clover

As thankful as I am that Artistic Explorer has finally returned to Japan to explore some more gardens with me, she is no more comfortable in front of a camera than I am. This makes no sense because she is attractive by every measure but, desperate as I am for pleasant companionship, I am compelled to accede to her wishes and stalk total strangers to provide you with "people pictures". I hid behind a bush to capture this interesting couple for you. Doesn't he look comfy?

His cap intrigues me, mainly because I had to postpone my hair appointment until next week to visit this garden today.  Sometime in the next day or two I'm going to have to cover my head with a cap like that.

This is the next thing I'm going to try to make

While I was busy searching for human subjects, Artistic spotted a water feature similar to but simpler than the one we discovered at a plum garden in the spring of 2010. You fill the ladle with water from the pot on the right then pour the water over the stones on top of the pot on the left with your ear against that bamboo pole to hear the water sing.

Here's the best part: Since we are foreigners, we are not expected to be as well-mannered as native Japanese visitors to the garden. So we blithely lifted the bowl of stones off the top of the pot and discovered how simple it will be to create one of these singing water features in our own Virginia gardens.

We just have to figure out how to drill a hole for a bamboo stick in a ceramic pot.

I'm counting on one of you to come up with a quick answer so I don't have to fritter away a few hours googling "ceramic" "drill" and "hole".

Thanks in advance.