Peonies As Big As Dinner Plates!
Not to be outdone by the cherry blossoms, azaleas and wisteria, the peonies of Tokyo come into their glory in May and June! First the big boys, like these at the Hama-Rikyu Garden, then the lovely fragrant ones at Nishiarai Daishi Temple.
If you’d like to visit the Hama-Rikyu Teien garden or Nishiarai Daishi temple or any of the beautiful gardens in Tokyo, directions & maps are on my website, The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had.
And just for fun, here are the eleven strangest shrines in Tokyo, with all the inside scoop on the resident gods’ superpowers. One of them is at Nishiarai Daishi temple!
•
The Last Tea Bowl Thief was chosen as an Editor’s Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense on Amazon
“A wonderful blend of history and mystery.” —Laura Joh Rowland, author of The Iris Fan
•
Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Categories
Jonelle Patrick View All
Writing mystery books set in Tokyo is mostly what I do, but I also blog about the odd stuff I see every day in Japan. I'm a graduate of Stanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. When I'm not in Tokyo, I live in San Francisco. I also host a travel site called The Tokyo Guide I Wish I'd Had, so if you're headed to Japan and want to check out the places I take my friends when they're in town, take a look!
Jonelle Patrick's Only In Japan 
Beautiful pictures! Loved the umbrella one the best. I had to scroll it down so that at first I didn’t know what the red thing was. It almost looked like spiral stairs.
Thank you so much! Now I can die happy. I love the parasols too, but it was really hard to figure out how to take a good picture of them. I think it’s great that you thought they were something else first, then realized what they were!