The Rikiguen Gardens (六義園) were originally built in the early 1700s by a samurai Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, before the land was eventually donated to the Tokyo Government in 1938. At only 300 yen for entry, it’s a pretty reasonable price to enjoy some greenery in the heart of Tokyo, and is a short walk from Komagome station on the Yamanote Line.
After visiting the Koishikawa Botanical Garden, we went for a wander and ended up quite close to the Rikugien so we decided what the heck, let’s check that out as well. In terms of birding, I felt like Rikiguen was the better spot.
We mostly spotted the usual suspects, although I got to check off two more birds I hadn’t logged yet - an oriental turtle-dove and a white-cheeked starling.
Also I spotted a great egret lurking about - my first time getting a nice clear picture of it.
At first it was quite hard to get a picture of it because it mostly stayed behind some rocks. But my patience was rewarded when I managed to get a picture of it catching a fish.
And then right before leaving the gardens, I spotted a new bird!
From a distance, we couldn’t actually tell what it was, we just thought it looked like something we hadn’t seen before. Once I got home I was able to identify it as a long-tailed tit.
Near the entrance of the garden we also passed by a Edo Daikagura (江戸太神楽) performance. Apparently it was once a traditional ritual done at shrines, before it morphed into more of a form of entertainment.
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