Japan 2018 Fall Foliage Tour

For our last full day in Kyoto, we started by visiting the bamboo forest and Tenryu-ji Temple (Temple of the Heavenly Dragon) in the Sagano district. The temple dates back to 1339 but the site had been the location of a temple going back even further to the 1200s. The weather could not have been better for our visit: Sunshine but...

The ANA flight from Vancouver to Tokyo leaves at 3 in the afternoon, which means with the 17 hour time change, you get into the Japanese capital at 6 pm the following day. This is perfect because by the time you get through customs and make the ride into town from Haneda Airport, you have just enough time for a...

From Tokyo, we travelled by express train to Matsumoto, a city with views of the Japanese Alps, which were snow-capped and beautiful when we arrived. Apparently, Nagano Prefecture, in which Matsumoto is located, is one of the most desirable parts of Japan to live, we were told, because of the quality of life and freedom from catastrophic weather as well...

What new and upcoming garden tours do I have planned for the remainder of 2018 and into 2019? In May, I will return to Italy for the ninth time to lead a very special Islands and Lakes Garden Tour, starting in Lugano and moving quickly to the Milanese lakes. You can see details here. From there, we will head to Sardinia...

I am head over heels in love with Japan. I don’t know why this happened now rather than the first time I visited this most excellent country four years ago. But I am now irrevocably smitten. I cannot stop saying how wonderful Japan is. I have been in a perpetual state of admiration ever since I set foot in...

In January, I will be announcing details of the long-awaited fall-foliage tour to Japan. This will probably be a 12 day trip to Japan in November to see the fabulous fall foliage colours in major centres, such as Kyoto, Takayama, Hiroshima and Kanazawa as well as the beautiful island destination of Miyajima. The tour will start in Tokyo and will visit...

We came to Owakudani, also known as the “boiling valley”,  an active volcanic area of Hakone, south of Tokyo, to see Mt. Fuji from a boat on Lake Ashinoko, a crater lake formed by the volcanic eruption in 1170. However, the weather did not cooperate and clouds obscured the shy mountain and we were forced to entertain ourselves with other...

The first place we went when we arrived in Hiroshima was to the site where the atom bomb exploded at 8:15 in the morning on August 6, 1945. Today, there is a small monument on the street next to a hospital, directly below the sky where the bomb exploded about 600 meters above ground, instantly killing 80,000 people, many of...

Giant dahlia at house in Kyoto Over the years, I’ve seen dozens of dahlias, big and small, in all sorts of gardens here and abroad. But I was surprised to see this gigantic dahlia growing in gardens in Japan recently. The one in the photos here was growing at...