A day in Suwa — Tateishi Park, Japanese garden, lake Suwa and more.

I looked outside the sliding window, the gentle rain fell silently on the pavement. I slid open the window and poked my head out, on my left was Takashima Castle, all quiet in the rain. A primary school student, with his blue uniform and yellow hat walked slowly with his mother, umbrella in hand, seemed to be talking about something.

I slid shut the window and prepared to head out.

In half an hour’s time, the rain subsided. We headed out, the scent of freshness was among the air, the asphalt roads were coated in a thin sheen of water, everything seemed clean and sharp.

We walked through the streets of Suwa, up the hill, towards Tateishi Park, the go-to spot for viewing Lake Suwa. Gradually, the city shrunk under our feet as we ascended.

Residential buildings were build along the slop, layers and layers of buildings stacked on top of each other, not totally unlike the layout of Tetris.

There were fields on the mountain slopes, houses dotted among the trees. There must be hundreds of houses along the winding road to the top of the hill.

On the way to Tateishi Park

I have been so used to my life in Hong Kong, with shopping malls that open till late at night just around the corner from where I live, I can buy most of the things I need in perhaps just 10 minutes. Maybe the reason why I like visiting the smaller cities / countryside so much is because I do not get to experience it much in my life back home.

I know visiting a place as a tourist and really moving in are two different things but given the chance, I would most likely live in a city like Suwa for a change.

There was a ball lying on the ground, felt as if it was the yard of a family’s yard.

On our way to the top, we came across this temple (Jizōji). Out of curiosity we made a small detour into the temple. Not a person in sight. The temple seemed to be quite new, or at least recently renovated judging by its clean, well-maintained outlook.

On the corner of the temple, there was a small, tunnel-like entrance, which apparently led to a garden. The sign mentioned: “the garden is one of the top 100 Japanese gardens in Japan. To visit, visitors have to drop 50 yen in the box at the entrance.”

Without thinking twice I paid the entrance fee and walked inside the tunnel like entrance, designed to prevent people from peeking in and hence satisfying their curiosity before paying the entrance fee.

As one of the top 100 gardens in Japan, it certainly lived up to its fame. Although it is small, the thoughtful arrangement of tall trees at the back, and smaller shrubs at the front emphasised the depth of the garden.

The stream led the viewer’s eyes to the small bridge and finally the y-shaped waterfall, a carefully crafted scene, using vegetation veiling various parts of the garden, prompting the visitor to walk and explore to see the whole garden, making the garden seemed larger than it actually is.

Left: the Y-shaped waterfall

There were no other visitors at the garden, only the sound of water accompanied us as we walked around the stream. The trees, the quietness, the the fact that the garden is empty except for us, made me felt as if I have entered a secret garden, isolated from the outside world, sheltered by all the tall trees, hidden in a corner of a temple.

We took our time, until one of us reminded us we have to get going or else the sun is going to set before we arrive Tateishi Park.

By the time we arrived Tateishi Park it was already 6pm. The sky was, unfortunately, still crowded with clouds. In a distance, the clouds got caught on top of the mountain range, curled up like soft cotton.

Suwa

I leaned on the railings, watching the scene unfolded in front of me. The evening light faded, like a long drawn out note of a song, slowly but inevitably ends. Sparks of light has lit up in the city below, signally the imminent transition from day to night.

On my left side was Suwa city, unobstructed by tall buildings like in Hong Kong. At the close end, I could make out each and every buildings, but at the far end, the buildings were rendered incomprehensible in my eyes, reduced to pixels of grays and blues and reds and whites.

Okaya

On my right were Okaya, sitting on the opposite side of the lake. I stared at the city lights. From time to time, there would be cars traveling on the roads, emitting little specks of red light, the city lights blinked at me, sparkling like distant stars. At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me, I blinked and looked again, the city lights were still blinking, as if to mimic my actions. I told my friends about my discovery and apparently it was due to the hot air rising from the ground that caused such distortion.

Due to the weather and the time of day, there were no other visitors except us and a pair of girls. I have laid down my bag, and sat down, taking in the view. It was all quiet except for the evening wind, the distance city noise, and the girls’ chatter.

The sky was like a screen of a cinema, stretched out to almost 180 degrees in front of me, as I sat and watched as the sky dimmed, as if somebody was tuning down the brightness level in a painstakingly slow way.

I took a few last photos before we walked down hill back to the city. Then to find out that perhaps half of my photos were sort of blurry because of the low shutter speed. Fortunately I did salvaged some usable shots.

The road downhill was surprisingly fast as we decided to take the back alleys. It took us perhaps a fraction of the time we took uphill. This story taught me the suggested route by Google Map is although, reliable, but not always the quickest.

At night time, there were quite the crowd at the supermarket near the train station, people buying their groceries after work perhaps.

Walking among the crowd in the brightly lit supermarket gave me a sense of comfort. Knowing that I have arrived at safety. It was not like I was in danger, but the darkness and the silence while we took the back alleys kind of made me feel unsafe, I suppose that’s because the streets are so well lit in Hong Kong and always full of people walking around, even late at night.

The green cast in the photo is probably because the camera is able to pick up the slight hue of the lighting.

After a quick dinner at a ramen restaurant near Kami Suwa station we walked back to our Airbnb apartment. Although we stayed right next to Takashima Castle, we did not get to visit it as we were only staying in Suwa for a day. We had to leave for Tokyo to catch our flight the following day, which we missed. But that is another story.

End

Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon FE2 + Fujichrome Provia 100f, iPhone 8