The Garden of Forking Paths

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, December 2025

Borges shout out!

I feel like I’ve probably mentioned his famous short story in previous blog posts, though in none of the ones at my dedicated website that I pay for with adult dollars and therefore try to upkeep.

The story doesn’t feature any physical gardens that I recall.

But I’ve not read it in well over a decade now, so don’t quote me on that.

I highly recommend it if you like detective stories with a post-modern twist. It’s a real brain teaser and among Borges best, imo.

Today’s photo depicts a scene at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in Tokyo from December of last year.

The garden is vast, and there are many, many paths to explore.

I wasn’t reminded of Borges at the time. So there’s no real connection here other than my love of art, nature, photography, and writing.

And I guess the word garden.

The 144-acre park was the first place I truly explored since arriving in Japan a day and a half prior.

Tokyo is almost incomprehensibly massive. I confided in friends at the time that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and taking my time adjusting.

I still think that was the right call 6 months and change later.

I also might have seen a little bit more of Nihon had I just dove right in. After all, that’s precisely what I did by going there solo despite not knowing anyone there in the first place.

I also only sketched out my itinerary and didn’t feel attached to it.

I liked the idea of hitting places that I had researched when the mood struck me while at the same time just wandering.

Tokyo is extremely safe. My biggest fear was not being taken advantage of in any way but rather my phone battery dying and being unable to get back to where I was staying.

Even that eventually was a non-issue, as I learned how to get to and from there quickly.

I did visit quite a few gardens in Japan.

I don’t do that much here in the states. If at all? I’m wracking my brains thinking of the last one I went to and am drawing a blank.

Part of me fears that this composition is a bit stereotypical.

What does it really have to say about what Japan is and isn’t?

On the other hand, I absolutely love the sharp reflection in the water on the left and the more impressionistic, colorful one on the right.

Also, I saw locals of all ages strolling the gardens everywhere I went and truly enjoying themselves.

This includes boys who looked like they were in High School out by themselves at a much smaller garden that I hit up on my last day in Kyoto.

They were happily photographing rose bushes and hunting for the best angles. Much like I was doing.

Maybe things have changed since I was that age here in the US? This wasn’t an activity that even occurred to me as an adolescent.

To be fair, my hometown had zero public gardens, let alone ones like I saw in Japan.

What I’m driving at is maybe this photo does capture a slice of life in Tokyo after all.

If I have any regrets about my visit, it’s that I rarely woke up early enough to get the soft light I normally am after and daresay covet.

I did arrive at Shinjuku Gyoen pretty close to opening (9 AM local). The sun was already high, and the lighting was quite harsh.

It was something like 10 AM or later by the time I got to this section.

In fact, it was mobbed by this point, and I was continuously working by then to snap photos without people in frame.

That was challenging here, as you can go inside the structure, and many people chose to do so.

I’ll wind this post down by saying I’ve learned a great deal about composition since I took these photos, and my tastes have changed in kind.

I typically shoot in standard 2:3, my camera’s default setting.

I think I’ll continue to do that, as on my particular camera model, I’ll lose pixels if I start with a tighter crop.

That said, it doesn’t make sense to always stay at 2:3.

I’ve changed to 4:5 for the final image and cropped in some, mainly to get rid of the blown-out sky.

There was no setting up a tripod with so many people around. Indeed, I think doing so would have been rude. I don’t recall anyone else using a tripod either.

So I was left to shoot handheld and capture single images rather than have the option to take multiple frames that I could blend to have both sufficiently darker skies and bright foreground.

I think I get away with that here because so much of the building is white and therefore stands apart from the surrounding canopy and the much darker pond.

Smoother water would perhaps improve the image further. But long exposure was out of the question without a tripod.

I was ready to write this photo off at the original size. It felt too busy.

I’m definitely glad I had the presence of mind to revisit and test out a different size.

I’ll try to share something from Ireland next time.

Also, I’ve been trying to engage with other photographers at their websites, YouTube channels, etc. to push myself to be active rather than passive.

I had an idea based on a particular YouTuber’s content that I want to explore.

That theme didn’t really fit this post however, so it will have to come later.

That’s all for now!