In April, 2014, I took 42 people on a 14-day tour of Japan, starting out in Tokyo and ending in Kyoto, visiting many famous gardens and cultural highlights along the way.
Our flight to Tokyo was historic since it was one of All Nippon Airways’ new direct flights from Vancouver to Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
Great gardens were the main focus and connecting theme but like all our tours, we spent a lot of time delving into culture and history.
In Tokyo, we had lessons in making sushi and we visit the Ginza shopping district as well as the Akihabara, an area known as “electric town” because of its abundance of high-tech electronic devices.
Our first morning, we visited the Meiji Shrine which was our first encounter was Shintoism. We enjoyed the inner courtyard of the shrine and a walk through the tranquil woodlands surrounding the shrine.
Next, we went to see the Emperor’s Palace downtown and we wandered through the 17th-century Hama-rikyu garden, which still contains the pine tree planted by shogun Tokugawa 300 years ago
Here, we saw lots of cherry blossoms and also enjoyed seeing some professional pruning work being done. We also saw our first “hanami” (flower viewing) picnic in progress and there were also a few artists in the garden painting.
Later, we went to the larger Shinjuku garden in the heart of the city, where dozens of families were gathered under the spreading canopy of old, larger cherry trees.
The next day we did various sightseeing stops in Tokyo as well as took a class in sushi making before visiting the ancient Buddhist temple of Senso-ji in the Asakusa area followed by a boat ride on the river.
One evening, we went to a baseball game between the Giants and the Swallows. We ended up wearing the hats of our favourite team and we learned how to celebrate home runs the Japanese way – by taking an open umbrella and raising it up and down.
From Tokyo, we went to the Mount Fuji area, stopping by the lake to get a better view and see more cherry blossoms, and then took a gondola up the mountainside at Hakone where we saw the hot spring, famous for cooking “black eggs”,
From Mt. Fuji, then we moved to Takayama where we stayed in a traditional Ryokan.
We got to wear kimonos and dine in classical Japanese style. You need to know that the photo here of us all wearing kimonos showed only half the group.
We had to separate because of our numbers and stay at two separate ryokans. This was also our opportunity to experience the Japanese spa culture.
From Takayama, we travelled to the world heritage village of Shirakawago before continuing on to Kanazawa where we visited the town’s fruit and fish market, geisha district and the famous Kenroku-en garden. We also went to see the delightful Nomura Samurai House in the Nasga-machi district.
At Kenroku-en, we found meticulously maintained gravel stroll-paths, a picturesque lake, low bamboo fencing and immaculately clipped azaleas and sculptured pines. The attention to detail was impressive.
From Kanazawa, we went to Kyoto, where we visited key gardens, including the Golden Temple (Kinkaku-ji), Silver Temple (Ginkaku-ji) and famous Saigo-ji moss garden and even more famous Ryoan-ji gravel garden.
Before being allowed entry to the Saihoji moss garden we were instructed by a Buddhist monk to sit on the floor at a writing desk in the temple and use an ink-brush to copy a page of script. As we did this, the monk chanted the text.
Saihoji is a unique, serene, green treasure of a garden that dates back to the 14th century, with 120 kinds of moss that carpet a woodland, creating a very peaceful landscape.
We went by bus to Osaka and Nara, where we visited the famous castle as well as the giant Buddha temple and got to see the deer populated woodlands.
Our tour included a couple of train rides, one on a “bullet train”, something that was very exciting as we had never travelled at such speeds, although getting on the train at precisely the right moment was a little tense.
Kyoto was a delight and possibly our favourite of all the cities we visited. We toured the geisha district went to a concert, but we especially enjoyed taking part in a traditional tea ceremony.
The most challenging garden to our Western sensibilities was the iconic 14th century dry-landscape rock garden at Ryoan-ji.
Who would have imagined that raked gravel dotted with 15 rocks could be so peaceful, engaging and inspiring. It was astonishingly peaceful.
The Golden Pavilion was a treat with its mirror-like lake and tiny islands of pines. This temple garden is considered by some experts as the Mona Lisa of Japanese gardens.
By comparison, the 14th-century Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji) on the northern slopes of Kyoto was more subtle but equally amazing with its deep-ridged raked sand garden and a sand symbol of Mount Fuji raked to perfection.
Outside this garden, we wandered down the Philosopher’s Path, which meanders alongside the waterway and offers you the chance to stop at other temple gardens.
For our last night in Japan, we had a celebratory classical Japanese feast. We had learned during our times in Japan to say Sayonara properly . . . with a sincere sigh and a tear in the eye. Not hard to do at the end of this magnificent adventure.
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