08-14-2025, 09:58 PM
Hakone Gardens had their fall 4th Annual Toro Nagashi (floating lantern festival) so I figured I’d check it out and honor my family…I wrote a little note for my dad, mom, and sister and wrote “Ad Infinitum Et Ultra” on it (“to infinity and beyond” in Latin according to google. My co-worker that was the president of his latin club in college couldn’t tell me if there was a better translation…
Weather was nice, and I took the cycle to make it easier to park. Not a lot of announcement or instruction. After the majority had lanterns in the water, a group did some traditional dancing. That was follower by the head of the zendo that meets there on Sundays. He rang the bowl a few times and then talked a lot about what the festival is about…I think that was the best part of the whole affair.
It started early enough that the electric candles in the lanterns werent doing anything. I walked the gardens, took pictures, waited till after dusk, took a few more pix and skedaddled.
—tg
Weather was nice, and I took the cycle to make it easier to park. Not a lot of announcement or instruction. After the majority had lanterns in the water, a group did some traditional dancing. That was follower by the head of the zendo that meets there on Sundays. He rang the bowl a few times and then talked a lot about what the festival is about…I think that was the best part of the whole affair.
It started early enough that the electric candles in the lanterns werent doing anything. I walked the gardens, took pictures, waited till after dusk, took a few more pix and skedaddled.
—tg