SAN DIEGO -- From the moment you enter, a quiet stillness and a sweet smelling air are immediate and wonderfully accessible. A sense of calm strips away the heavy layers of stress and the lingering effects of any worry.

The San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden, tucked away in the city’s scenic Balboa Park, is a charming place of peace and natural tranquility.

For San Diego service members, their families and friends, the garden is an ideal destination for taking a needed time out to reflect and soak in a moment of Zen.

Inscribed with the kanji symbols of the garden’s name, “San-Kei-En” or “Three-Scene Garden” in English is an entrance stone inside the welcoming plaza, named in honor of the San Kei-En garden in Yokohama, Japan, the garden symbolizes the cultural connection between the peoples of San Diego and Japan into a unique walking experience.

Taking influences from traditional gardens in Japan, San Diego’s Japanese Friendship Garden accentuates the rich local landscape, plant life and natural features.

It is an effort at a perfect blend of nature, peace and harmony.

Walking down the garden’s curved path toward the exhibit house, designed in the style of 16th century Japanese architecture, visitors experience the garden under a natural canopy of trees.
It’s hard not to notice subtle changes in the path and the surroundings. The friendly and respectful garden staff members will tell you this is intended to stimulate awareness.

The exhibit house, a very quiet and minimalist space in Japanese style holds numerous Japanese cultural artifacts related to the Japanese Tea Ceremony—a ritual of Zen Buddhism in a tranquil setting. Showcased are finely manicured exquisite plants, flowers, scrolls, and tea sets.

But the most comforting and enticing feature is a meditation area, or Zen Garden, with benches that overlook a “Sekitei” or rock garden. Large, dark rocks imported from Japan rest on a raked bed of white gravel from San Marcos. The space beyond is a small canyon.

Deep inside the garden there are many features traditional to Japanese culture, including a stone lantern, a “Shi-Shi-Odoshi” and a “Tsukubai” or water basin, a slow pond with brilliantly colored Koi fish, a deck for viewing the moon at night, a bonsai grooming activity center and a ceremonial plaza for special events such as weddings and musical performances.
Water gently spills from the bamboo Shi-Shi-Odoshi and onto the Tsukubai rocks to ward off evil spirits. The Shi-Shi-Odoshi is named for the sound it makes in the silence of the garden.

The garden has roots in the 1915 World Exposition in San Diego when a Japanese Tea Pavilion was erected as a symbol of the strong ties between San Diego and Japan, according to the San Diego Historical Society’s Web site www.sandiegohistory.org.

Members of the Japanese Friendship Garden and its employees have obviously spent countless hours in loving dedication to making the garden, with its small ponds, waterfalls and groves, a special place of serenity and natural balance for the people of San Diego.

Maps and legends to the garden’s nine enriching acres are available at the front gate.

For anyone in search of San Diego’s lesser known and unique features, the Japanese Friendship Garden is a place where fulfillment and a quiet spirit can be found.

For more information on the San Diego Friendship Garden and times when visitors are welcome, call (619) 232-2721, or visit www.niwa.org.