Morikama Gardens

I guess because I am always searching for outdoor things to do, FB kept featuring the Morikama Museum on my page. You know how google and fb are, they watch what your interests are and place comparable ads in front of you! 

I am accustomed to them knowing all my business now so don’t really mind as its often useful. 

So I went with a friend.

According to their information, in 1904, Sakai, a Japanese graduate of New York University, returned to his homeland of Miyazu, Japan, to organize a group of pioneering farmers to settle in Boca Raton. They named their farming settlement Yamato, an ancient name for Japan. However, their crop experimentation were disappointing and the Yamato Colony fell far short of its goals and by the 1920s, most of the community, which was about 35 people strong, gave up and one by one and most families left for other parts of the United States or returned to Japan.

Morikami would become the last of the original colonists to remain in Palm Beach County. Ultimately, his is the classic immigrant’s story — an ambitious young man, seeking opportunity, travels to America to make a better life for himself. Through hard work and ingenuity George Morikami found prosperity here, achieving a personal worth in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. Despite this, he was a man of simple tastes for whom the trappings of wealth meant little. He preferred to live out his life simply, finding pleasure in his closeness to nature. Toward the end he lived reclusively in a mobile home on land he had purchased in the closing days of World War II —land that would become Morikami Park.

A Timeless Gift

George Morikami was one of the original settlers to remain in Palm Beach County and he made a fortune there. However he preferred to live the simple life, finding pleasure in his closeness to nature and acquiring land in the closing days of World War II.

 Almost 20 years later he began what would become a 10-year campaign to give the land away, first to the city of Delray Beach, and later to Palm Beach County. 

In 1977  the Morikama Museum and Gardens were established in his name to showcase Japanese arts, history and culture in South Florida. It hosts several traditional festivals several times a year.

  

The museum’s architecture is inspired by traditional Japanese design. The building features three exhibition galleries, a 225-seat theater, an authentic tea house with viewing gallery, classrooms, a museum store, all imparting worthwhile information.

On the outside, around 200 acres they say,  you find well designed strolling paths, nature trails, lots of picnic areas, resting areas, and lakes teeming with koi and other wildlife. 

                                         

In the gardens, one of the many sculptures is a statue is of Buddha. I noted that some visitors left donations in paper and coins on around this particular statue, for good luck, I guess.

There's money atop this scupture😊

Since Buddha is more or less synonymous with meditation, I recommend these well-kept grounds as an excellent place to meditate and find peace.

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Alligator mating call

I heard an alligator mating call and believe me it was the most bone chilling sound I ever heard.

Storks all over the trees

 It was almost, I imagine, how it sometimes sounded when disnosaurs were roaming!

We were walking in Wakodahatchee Wetlands. This is a park in  Palm  Beach County on Jog Road close to Delray Beach and it is managed by the water resources people. I had gone there with our fearless Meet Up leader, Jennifer Weise in late May or early June.

At this reserve you find a wide variety of Florida's flora and fauna. However, it is best known for the proliferation of birds and you see bird watchers with their cameras prowling as they wait patiently for the shot of a lifetime.

We went there a bit late that day so the only birds that were still around in their numbers were storks, mostly white and of every size.

They literally took over every tree from top to middle and really made a literal mess for the other birds or anything that must survive on the bottom branches and under those trees!

The only animals we saw that day were a few rabbits, a couple of iguanas and as we approached the boardwalk, we saw a lone alligator lurking among some trees.

We did not pay him much attention but after we had passed the area and gone about 100 feet, we heard a loud blood-curdling sound and lots of action in the water. I had no idea what was happening but although Jennifer said she had never heard the mating call in real life, she recognized it from what others had told her.

We went back to watch him for a while and like this photo I found on the wetland's fb page, it was as if he half rose out of the water and was just shouting or shrilly growling and splashing in the water with his huge tail, for quite some time.

Even after we walked away, he could still hear the eerie noise, though fading, thank heavens, as we got further away.

It was not the type of sound I liked hearing and for his sake, I hope he found a wife, for if he didn't, maybe he is still there creating a racket. 

Worse yet, he could have died from a heart attack for the way he was exciting up himself, he must have been putting quite a strain on his heart!