Making fun of trees is a knock on wood.

So this post is going to be very short, but I want to share one of my favorite places in Tokyo. 

It's pretty small. I found it during one of the first few days I arrived. While trying to find my way back to the apartment, I stumbled upon a bunch of sports fields. I sat and watched all the teams play a variety of sports. I can't quite put it into words, but many of the sports played here have very subtle difference than the ones back home, I noticed this especially with baseball. 

After sitting for a while, I chose to press on and try to figure out where I was. I soon arrived at this vaguely open gate leading to some sort of park thing. Looking back now, I'm fairly sure it was a service entrance, but I still went in. On my way on this tiny little driveway, I found this. 

What? Stuff on fire? I like this place better already (I'm still not quite sure why this was happening).

Anyway, I pressed on and entered on a nice little stone path. It led to a wooded area. The trees twisted overhead and weaved some sort of canopy above me.

Butterflies where flapping about, with the songs of both birds and cicadas (don't even get me started on those guys) following me wherever I walked. I soon ran into a small river with a path parrelling it. A little ways down this trail, there was a cute little stone bridge. It was all very romantic. I sat on the edge and looked down on the koi gliding through the murky water. 
This was the view from my seat: 

The bridge was quite steep, and couples would run up to the top and let gravity push them a little further on the way down. They would hold hands and giggle too hard. It's funny how media has portrayed these kinds of bridges as romantic, and that a good part of the population believes so also. Not that it is a bad thing, but I've always wondered why we think of certain things in the way we do.

After sticking in my earbuds and listening to something sentimental, I hopped off the bridge's railing and ventured further into the park. I soon came across a long boardwalk extending into a large pond that said river connected to. I strolled around the pond, watching the various kinds of ducks swim around and the schoolkids running off together. After following the path as far as I could, I came to actual entrance of the park and found a plaque (partially in English) explaining where and what this park was all about. It is a place called Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park. It was beautiful. I felt as if I had stepped off of the street and into someplace magical.