Japanese Garden

　　We visited the Japanese Garden next after 10 minutes' walk from the ökostation through the park of late autumn. I'll show you several pictures below. The first one is the entrance of the garden. You'll see the flags of both cities of Freiburg and Matsuyama. Additionally, there was the logo of Matsuyama City on the ground. I was grateful for a favor from citizens of Freiburg. The entrance closely resembled the gates of Matsuyama Castle. Just after stepping in the garden, I found the stone monument on which "肝胆相照" in Tokio Nakamura's original handwriting was carved. For your information, he was the mayor of Matsuyama City when the sister city treaty was signed 25 years ago. If this Japanese phrase could be translated literally into English, let each other see to the liver and gallbladder. That is to say, say what you think without pulling your punches and be good friends. I admired that he chose this phrase as the words on the monument which stood there.
　　The present mayor of Matsuyama City was formerly a popular announcer of the local broadcasting company. He was well known and some people wanted to take pictures with him. I don't have permission to upload pictures from them, but it would be no problem. The last picture shows me and my daughter. Do you see that I wore a blue pin to express my opposition to the kidnapping by DPRK (North Korea)?

(Vocabulary)
in sb's original handwriting （人）の直筆の
original 《[名]の前でのみ》自筆の, 原画の, 真作の
not pull any punches (informal)  (反対・非難などで) 手かげんしない, 遠慮せずに述べる