Balboa Park's Japanese Friendship Garden offers serene beauty with koi ponds and blooming trees, attracting hummingbirds and wildlife lovers. | TimeOut

Japanese Friendship Garden tour in only 5000 steps

San Diego’s Balboa Park houses plenty of interesting things which we have investigated in the past. Today we broke new ground by visiting the Japanese Friendship Garden which we had never entered before due to the need for a $16 ticket (which we skipped today because I bought my wife a year’s membership for her birthday). It was a beautiful morning, about 70 degrees F and no wind or obnoxious gardeners blowing things around.

The sun was shining and many of the trees were in bloom;

they said not too many of the cherry blossoms were still in place… but there were plenty for our eyes.

We wandered along the paths having failed to pick up a map but sure we wouldn’t get lost...

It was relatively quiet (as you would expect at 11 am on a Monday) and I can’t imagine it would be that pleasant in full bloom and full tourists on a weekend! But our visit was great.

Plants were all happy for the sunshine, and showing their best for us.

Of course, I wore a Japanese watch. What else but a Credor will do?

At least 3-4 streams ran 100’s of yards downhill into ponds,

filled with enormous greedy koi. Signs said “Do not feed” so we did not.

I looked for a sushi restaurant but to no avail. There is tea available and a few rice cakes but no “real” food.

I almost always find hummingbirds and today was no exception — 5-6 of them investigated us, but this the only one I thought would be worth sharing:

They normally perch, then zoom around, then go back to the same tree if not the same branch.

Oh, that is until this guy came right up to my feet. Can you find him?

A fat and lazy duck sat in a small pool on the uphill side of the big pond, getting anything that drifted by his beak.

There was a tea house at the top and one at the bottom. Souvenirs inside were high priced and underwhelming (sorry).

As we stepped outside I heard a plane descending towards a landing at nearby SD International Airport and snapped a picture — it was Japan Airlines’ one daily flight to/from Tokyo — how about that for timing!

The lizard sunning himself was not impressed, and laid back down after I walked past.

My wife felt I should pose too, so here you go.

We made our way back uphill, past a gang of school children in uniforms, and found our route back to the entrance.

The pine trees above us were in full bloom. Yes, this is a pine flower soon to be a pine cone.

More greedy fish begging for a handout!