Sankei-en Garden in Autumn Colours

As far as I know, the Sankeien Garden is the only Jaoanese garden located within an airport.

It can be found at Hiroshima Airport in the mountains to the east of the city.

If you are flying in or out of the airport it is obviously worth a visit.

Though a ways out of town it is pretty easy to visit from the city as there are very frequent airport limousine buses.

Very reminiscent of an Edo Period daimyo stroll garden, it is good any time of the year, but superb when the autumn colors are on show.

It was opened in 1993 at the same time as the airport, and uses rocks and stones excavated from the airport site.

It was designed by Ito Kunie who I havent heard of although he has designed many other contemporary gardens around Japan. He was originally from Hiroshima.

The name, sankei, refers to three landscapes, in this case, Sea, Mountain, and Village.

The entrance is through a building modelled on the architecture of Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima and "floats" over the huge koi pond.

The large pond represents the Seto Inland Sea and has many islands.

Bridges are a big feature of the garden and there are quite a few different styles.

The mountain section of the garden features lots of natural forest and a three-level waterfall.

The village section contains lots of maple as well as bamboo and plum.

The garden also has a lot of different Iris species and an Iris Festival is held in June.

The garden is at about 300 meters altitude so the autumn color are a little earlier than down in the city.

There are also 10,000 hydrangeas of about 100 different varieties.

On weekwnds in November they have late openings with illunation.

There is a cafe serving tea, coffee, and snacks, and a 12 tatami room overlooking the pond available for rental.