Monthly Archives: December 2017

Japanese Friendship Garden

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Japanese Friendship Garden
October 29, 2017
December 29, 2017
Balboa Park, San Diego

The Japanese Friendship Garden is an oasis of beauty. We have often walked by its entrance, near the organ pavilion in the heart of Balboa Park, but had not been inside it for many years. We very much enjoyed our recent visits, the first on a quiet Sunday afternoon in October, the other just this past week.

The garden is located on a 12 acre plot within the park. It is a “friendship” garden because it symbolizes the bond between San Diego and its sister city Yokohama. The garden displays and celebrates Japanese culture, and uses Japanese gardening techniques with plantings suited to the San Diego climate.

In the upper garden we enjoyed the watercolor paintings displayed in the exhibit house, and we sat a while contemplating the dry stone garden. There is a koi pond in the upper garden, and we encountered more koi in the lower garden. They are large and splendidly colored animals!

The path meanders down into the canyon, from the upper to lower garden areas. Along the hillside we saw azaleas in bloom. There is a long water feature in the lower garden, which starts as a dry waterfall, then segues into flowing water, down to a pond around the Inamori Pavilion on the lower level. The garden is managed so that there are always some plants in bloom. We are looking forward to the cherry blossoms in the spring!

Some of the regular paths are a little steep, but there are alternate paths for wheelchair visitors.

Regular admission is $10; there are discounts for students, seniors, and military. Children under 6 are free. San Diego residents can get in free on the third Tuesday of each month.

There is an open air cafe outside the garden serving rice bowls, sushi, edamame, sandwiches, salads, and a variety of teas as well as other beverages. We ate there on our second visit and enjoyed our food. Since it is outside the garden, park visitors can eat there whether or not they are visiting the garden. Two of Bob’s former students saw him there, and they chatted while we waited in line to order.

Our second visit fell on the same day as the Cotton Bowl, and our middle daughter was in town, so we all put on our Buckeye regalia. In addition to the Japanese Friendship Garden, we visited the Timken and looked at the nativity scenes set up near the Organ Pavilion. (After the park visit, we headed to Mission Beach to hang out with other Buckeye fans and watch the game.)

Bowers Museum

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Bowers Museum
December 17, 2018
Santa Ana

We headed north to see the Bowers Museum, which has a large and eclectic art collection. Meredith’s sister Kathleen had suggested visiting it, and after several unsuccessful attempts to find a date in common with her, we decided to see it on our own.

We spent much of our time in two special exhibitions: first we saw Endurance, the Antarctic Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley, and next we visited Empress Dowager Cixi, Selections from the Summer Palace. We also toured the oldest parts of the museum and looked at the early California collection.

We were fascinated by the Shackleton exhibition. It is built around the stunning photographs and motion pictures taken by expedition photographer Frank Hurley, of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917). The negatives have been newly digitized and show remarkable detail, and his compositions are striking. The museum has laid out the exhibition in chronological order, with brief explanations of the various hardships and twists and turns of the expedition’s journey, illustrated by Hurley’s photos and films. The museum is also screening an hour long documentary about the Shackleton expedition from the first sailing to Antarctica, through the long confinement in the pack ice, the row to uninhabited Elephant Island, the open water journey to South Georgia island, and the trek across that island to the whaling station, where Shackleton finally returned to the outside world. A replica of the boat in which Shackleton sailed from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island, a distance of over 720 nautical miles, is displayed in the courtyard of the museum just outside the restaurant.

The Empress Dowager Cixi (whose name is transliterated Tz’u Hsi in older western texts and pronounced “she she,” we think) was originally an imperial concubine. When her son became emperor as a child, she ruled as regent and continued her regency during the minority of her nephew. In all, she ruled China for nearly five decades, from 1861 to 1908. The special exhibition at the museum has many decorative items from her Summer Palace. The furniture on display includes a beautiful and ornate throne set. There are many beautiful Chinese art works, including some calligraphy and painting done by the empress herself. Beautifully embroidered silk gowns are displayed. Bob’s eye was caught by a large carved tourmaline stone mined in San Diego and exported to China, where it was carved as a decorative object. The Empress was interested in Western technology and art, and her interest is reflected in the collection, with objects such as English table clocks. Meredith enjoyed seeing the 1901 Duryea Surrey automobile which one of the empress’ generals imported from the United States as a gift to her. It had a three cylinder, 10 hp engine and was capable of speeds up to 25 mph.

The Shackleton exhibition runs through January 28, 2018. The Empress Dowager exhibition runs through March 11, 2018.

We had lunch at the museum restaurant, Tangata. Service and food were both excellent. It is somewhat pricey. It can be accessed by the general public as well as museum visitors.

After lunch, we visited the oldest parts of the California collection, the Native American and mission era rooms. The California collection is housed in the oldest part of the museum complex, the original building constructed in the 1930’s. There are some very beautiful woven baskets which Meredith‘s late mother Margaret would have loved. In addition to the artifacts on display, the Segerstrom gallery features a beautiful carved wooden ceiling.

We decided to leave for another day the rest of the museum’s permanent collections, which include such things as California plein air paintings, Mexican ceramics, Pacific Island art and artifacts, Pre-Columbian art, and Chinese and Japanese art.

General admission is $15 for adults on weekends, $13 on weekdays; the Empress Dowager exhibit had an additional entry fee. Students and seniors enjoy discounts, and children under 12 are free with paid adults. The museum is closed on Mondays. Parking costs $6, but is free with restaurant validation. Handicapped access is good. In the modern building, everything is at a level. In the older building, there are some steps down into the Native American room, but it was retrofitted with a wheelchair lift.