Garden of Flowering Fragrance

We visited a Chinese garden at the Huntington in San Marino. It was completed this year. The garden is named "Liu Fang Yuan" or the "Garden of Flowing Fragrance".



There's a great deal of symbolism and meaning in each of the garden elements, including references inspired by Chinese literature. However a few photos might best describe the garden for now...



Additional information about the garden can be found on the Liu Fang Yuan website, including a downloadable walking tour (podcast) in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

Earth Day 2008

Today we went to the Earth Day Festival in Pasadena at Memorial Park and the Armory Center for the Arts. Hikaru had so much fun that he was in a good mood for the entire day. He couldn't stop talking about his first experience riding on this "green and clean biofuel machine" -- a horse.



There were community booths of all kinds from "Saving the Orangutans" to the "Pasadena Water and Power". From the "Whole Foods" booth, we picked up some free reusable tote bags for carrying groceries that should save on our usage of plastic bags.



This bus is a solar-powered mobile woodworking shop from the Side Street Projects. Pretty cool.



And we participated in some street art by drawing on a large piece of cardboard. Hikaru's favorite color is orange. He drew two snakes that he saw at the festival.



This modest electric vehicle called the Xebra Xero might give us a hint of what our next car could be. It plugs into a regular electrical outlet and has a range up to 40 miles. At close to $4 per gallon for gasoline (and rising), it's starting to look pretty good.



Shouldn't every day be Earth Day? Hikaru enjoys tossing leaves in the air.

Life Is But a Dream

We spent an afternoon going merrily merrily along the stream. Hikaru was very focused on throwing various-sized rocks into the stream, and seeing the water splash.



We watched the water striders gliding effortlessly on the surface of the stream, and tadpoles wriggling underneath at the bottom. The spring flowers were also blooming...



Yes, Hikaru could probably sit there by the stream all day -- throwing one rock after rock after another rock...



Hikaru also enjoyed doing some "fishing", and he catches a big piece of green algae.



These yellow coneflowers are a common sight here.



And we followed a beetle making it's way over the rocks.



This was our weekend afternoon of family fun...

Hikaru's Shanty Town

Signs of Change in Little Tokyo

A few photos of the words on the wall along Azusa Street at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo...