Japanese Gardens

Japan wouldn't be Japan without it's bonzai trees and traditional Japanese style gardens. We've had the opportunity to visit many public gardens and private ones to get a glimpse of this kind of beauty. However, you can't find these gardens just anywhere. You can find some in your neighborhood amonst older...more tradtional style homes. Like this one...

Or....you can visit a world heritage like an old Samurai Village. We got to do this last January with Angie's family. Each home in the village had it's own garden with a theme. The Samurai garden below is designed after mountains and streams. Can you see it?

Another way to see these gardens is to pay money to see them. We've done this too! In our case the landscape was not so interesting b/c this garden mainly featured rocks and mounds of dirt! We remember seeing signs posted for the oldest mound of dirt in the park. This particular park also was famous for growning ground moss. We saw them sweeping the moss to make it more beautiful.

This man is trimming a bonsai tree. Underneath the tree is a blanket to catch the trimmings so as not to disturb the moss.



For those of you that don't know....not everyone in Japan knows how to trim bonsai trees! It's quite an artform, really. In fact, I always thought that bonsai trees were those very small trees that Mr. Miage trimmed in Karate Kid. But, it turns out that there are several kinds of these trees. The Japanese can't even recognize all the different kinds. AND there are more trees in Japan than just these! Japan has trees from evergreens to Palm trees!


And what is a Japanese garden without Coy Fish. They let these fish get sooo huge!! I've never seen anything like it!

The Japanese love any kind of gardening. Most gardens that you see are vegetable gardens. Once they start planting in June, after rainy season, you don't see them stop planting until February! Although most people don't have room in front or behind their house to have a garden. So, there is usually a plot of land in the neighborhood or any small space that is shared amongst neighbors. I assume there is rent paid to use the land. So...it's common to see many different small veggie gardens altogether. They're favorite things to plant in the local gardens is dikon(a huge radish), egg plant, lettuce, and sweet potatoes. I never see anyone growing greenbeans or tomatoes! Anyhow, I'd show you a picture but who hasn't seen a picture of a garden?

Another kind of garden that is popular in Japan are rose gardens. Once I went to someones house for lunch to see their rose garden and we ended up walking all over the neighborhood seeing quite a few! One house imparticular even had a small green house of roses! It was impressive.

It's always fun to see how the Japanese can turn any small space into a garden paradise!