Views of/from Tokyo's Rikugien and Kiyosumi Gardens (Photo-essay)

What with the weather being so pleasant (and the skies generally so wonderfully bright blue) for much of the time during my most recent Japan vacation, I couldn't help but want to spend a large part of it outdoors. Thus it was that on day five of my recent Japan sojourn, I ended up visiting not one but two Japanese stroll gardens: one of which -- the Rikugien Gardens in Komagome -- was identified by the Frommer's Japan (principal) author as "probably my favorite"; the other of which, the Kiyosumi Gardens located close to the Fukagawa Edo Museum, I also very much enjoyed checking out.

The following photos consist of four each from Rikugien and Kiyosoumi -- and I'll leave you, the viewer(s), to decide which garden you think is more pleasant and beautiful!

A view to be had at Rikugien Garden --
the strolling, mountain and pond-style garden created
in accordance with six Waka poem elements

An artifical waterfall flows down through a
(similarly artificial?) gorge at Rikugien Gardens

Contemplative scene at Rikugien Gardens
 
View which takes in Togetsukyo, a stone bridge named
after a famous Waka poem about the view of the moon
moving across the sky with the cry of a crane
in a rice paddy heard nearby

A turtle suns itself while perched on a rock at Kiyosumi Gardens

The grounds -- and views of -- Kiyosumi Gardens include
Taisho Kinekan, a post World War II reconstruction
of a building used in connection with
the funeral of the Taisho Emperor (1879-1926)

Within the grounds of the Kiyosumi Gardens,
there also is a Ryotei built using the methods of
traditional tea ceremony hall construction
as well as a pond on whose waters ducks happily float

Puppet Ponyo in her element -- not quite on the cliff
by the sea but nonetheless on relatively elevated land
overlooking a body of water full of colorful fish! ;)