{"id":14,"date":"2009-09-12T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-12T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/?p=14"},"modified":"2019-11-14T13:28:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T21:28:41","slug":"japanese-tea-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/2009\/09\/12\/japanese-tea-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Tea Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Video Postcard: Japanese Tea Garden\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GVTG1dH2ifg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park is one of San Francisco\u2019s best-loved outdoor attractions and certainly among its quietest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is said to be the oldest public Japanese garden in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite its status as a favored tourist destination, it is mostly undefiled by its popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a modest entrance fee and a gift shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You might also spend a few dollars at the tea house to get a cup of tea and the fortune cookies &#8212; which are originally a Japanese confection, not Chinese. They were introduced to America on this very spot over a century ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photographers will find no bad angles in this five-acre oasis of tranquility. The textures and colors of the abundant flora (and the occasional fauna) delight the eye and can quickly fill up your camera\u2019s memory card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Originally planned to be a temporary attraction at the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition, the tea garden was expanded and cared for by its creator, a landscape gardener named Makoto Hagiwara, who died in 1925.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His family tended to the garden and lived on the premises under a 99-year lease which went up in smoke in World War II when they were evicted and sent to an internment camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 17-room house where the Hagiwara family lived is long gone as are many of the ornaments and statues they collected during the almost half-century they stayed here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the garden they nurtured for so long, though sometimes a bit the worse for wear, still endures as a monument to peace, a place of delicate beauty and a bridge between continents and cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED LINKS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Official Site: <a href=\"http:\/\/japaneseteagardensf.com\">Japanese Tea Garden of San Francisco<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SFGate.com: <a href=\"http:\/\/sfgate.com\/homeandgarden\/article\/Tea-Garden-s-radiant-foliage-invites-quiet-2866974.php\">Tea Garden\u2019s Radiant Foliage<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3153.8510166689857!2d-122.47262468468242!3d37.77009137976029!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x8085808fb9e85b85%3A0xbfb29b164018aab7!2sJapanese+Tea+Garden!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1510163643260\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park is one of San Francisco\u2019s best-loved outdoor attractions and certainly among its quietest. It is said to be the oldest public Japanese garden in the country. Despite its status as a favored tourist destination, it is mostly undefiled by its popularity. There is a modest entrance fee &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/2009\/09\/12\/japanese-tea-garden\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Japanese Tea Garden&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[3,9],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california","category-san-francisco","tag-golden-gate-park","tag-japanese-tea-garden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16,"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/viewfinders.com\/scenecards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}