Nagai Gardens

 Today we went to Nagai Park to see the Nagai Botanical Gardens. Nagai Botanical Gardens is huge – it takes up 24.2 hectares of Nagai Park. I imagine that the whole atmosphere of the park will change with the seasons as new plants begin to bloom and blossom… However, our visit in autumn was beautiful and it seems like any other season couldn’t compare. 

 This weekend is some sort of Kansai Cultural Weekend, so entry was free! I think it’s only a couple of hundred yen entry anyway - and this includes entry to the Museum of Natural History. 

Whilst many leaves had turned the classic autumnal reds, this tree seemed eager to show off how green he still is.

Beautiful collections of meticulously planted flowers are everywhere you turn.

There is a huge lake in the middle of the gardens which has an abudance of plants itself...

We spied some ducks and walked closer to the water to check them out, and to our surprise saw turtles lurking secretly beneath the water! 

They were super cute and seemed to take an interest in us taking an interest in them...

Hellooooo!

Walking further through the gardens we stumbled upon this incredibly beautiful, and peaceful, stream.

And we had fun walking - or jumping in someone's case - across the stepping-stones.

And look at the size of these lilies! The smell of blooming flowers really does fill the air.

Interesting, Nagai has a huge rose garden and a variety of different breeds of roses. I found this absolutely stunning, and excitedly ran around putting my nose in all the different flowers to smell the different scents. I love roses - doesn't every girl!? - and seeing all the different varieties was phenomenal. And just look how stunning they were...

This dusky lilac colour one was my favourite. It's called a Blue Bijou and the photo cannot demonstrate how great it smelt. It was almost like a cross between a rose and a pack of parma violets, and was just gorgeous. I'm now dreaming about having my own rose garden when I'm a proper adult living in the countryside somewhere.

Walking towards the exit look who came to say goodbye...

And... the best part was that we even took a plant home with us! 

Nagai Botanical Gardens was incredibly beautiful and I really hope to head back soon. It's such a peaceful place to walk around and be with your thoughts.