Keihannakinenkoen Park

Formally the Kansai Science City Commemorative Park, Keihanna Park sits at the heart of the research city spreading over the hills where Kyoto, Osaka and Nara meet — 24.1 hectares in all. It was conceived as a new kind of Japanese garden: one that expresses Japanese culture and landscape while serving as a meeting place for an international, research-driven community. Rather than clearing the site, the design kept the existing ponds and woodland and built around the theme of living with nature. Its centrepiece, Suikeien, is a stroll garden that folds in the satoyama scenery of southern Yamashiro along with a stone landscape built from some 500 boulders.