shiukopuppy's Blog

My boyfriend and I have decided to go back to Japan to see more gardens among other things.

When we were last in Japan, we tracked down a rural bonsai nursery. It was an adventure.. We visited the tourist centre with some printouts from Japanese websites with maps to bonsai nurseries. They managed to locate one near us and we had to catch a train into the countryside and navigate our way through a country town. The map was in Japanese and I was relieved that I could remember enough Japanese to get there. Eventually we found the bonsai nursery and had tea with the owner who showed us books with his bonsai at various shows. We discussed bunjae (korean bonsai) and penjing (chinese bonsai) as much as we could with my level of Japanese. It was a sort of pilgrimage for my boyfriend who is passionate about bonsai so we were happy! ^_^

This time, we're going to visit a bonsai community near Tokyo where he can admire the trees at various nurseries and buy some more bonsai tools/books. Last time we were there, my partner learned the kanji for 'bonsai' and was able to buy lots of books and magazines for me to translate. This time, I hope we can meet some more bonsai enthusiasts. I have tried to grow bonsai but I don't have the magic bonsai touch.. but I enjoy choosing the saplings and looking at the little accessories - bridges, fishermen, etc.