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They say only four out of ten tourists in Japan get to see its most sacred landscape, a view of Mount Fuji, as it is often lost in fog and clouds.
Unpredictable weather is something the UK and Japan have in common, along with a propensity to respectfully queue. But during my tour of Japan’s best gardens, brilliantly organized by Trips to the RivieraIt was the differences between our cultures that were most intriguing.
After all, no one goes to the Land of the Rising Sun for its beaches, although I think there are many worth seeing. Not many people make the 14-hour flight to museums and galleries either, although there are plenty of those, too.
But people like gardens, cherry blossoms, or fall colors, and they are never disappointed. Japanese gardens, however, are not like British ones.
They are mostly jewelers of artifice, miniature landscapes and constructed views of hills and ponds, enhanced by rigid disciplines and traditions, many of which have not changed over the centuries.
Sculpted: A woman strolls through the Sagano Bamboo Forest, “a bamboo forest on the side of a mountain whose astonishing trees tower above the crowds.”
They reflect the Japanese character: a fierce attention to detail, driven by an obsessive perfectionism that requires, for example, that each of its ubiquitous Chinese pine trees be pruned to within an inch of its pampered life, and that each fall they be removed by hand the dead needles. .
There are strolling gardens, designed for contemplative strolling where every corner is designed to reveal a new scene. There are tea gardens, often with what are called “rendered landscapes”, where elements outside their walls (a mountain or a castle) are incorporated into the view. And then there are Zen gardens, often raked gravel courtyards tended by Buddhist monks, where strategically placed rocks are placed for the purpose of meditation.
They reflect the Japanese character: a fierce attention to detail, driven by obsessive perfectionism.
They all subscribe to the Japanese Shinto belief in the sanctity of nature. It is said that there are thousands of Shinto gods, embodied in rocks, water, air and living beings of plants, trees and moss.
Our meticulously managed tour took us with ruthless efficiency by train, coach, and even ferry from Tokyo to Hiroshima, and then on to Kyoto and Nara.
It took me a while to get used to joining a “crocodile” of about 40 people following a tiny guide waving a pom-pom. But what would have seemed like a humiliation in, say, London, somehow seemed almost natural in an obedient, deferential, super-educated and organized Japan, a country where 60 percent of lost wallets are returned, intact, to their owners. .
In fact, at the end of the trip I found myself standing at a red light with no traffic signs and thinking, “Oh my God, I’m turning Japanese.”
Here are ten gardens not to be missed.
Hotel New Otani, Tokyo
It’s strange to start with a hotel garden, except to say that the vast 1,000-room Tokyo landmark that has counted Bill Clinton among its guests is 400 years younger than the former Shogunate garden that surrounds it. This stunning two-acre expanse of ponds, waterfalls and traditional tea rooms in the heart of the capital is an oasis of calm despite its high-rise neighbours.
Details: Free entry. Open every day, from 6 am to 10 pm (newotani.co.jp).
Okayama Korakuen
A tea house in Okayama Korakuen, pictured, a garden that features “elegant avenues and tea houses” as well as a spacious lawn.
This large strolling garden was completed in 1700 by a local aristocrat. It is located on its own island and includes rice fields and an aviary of cranes, the sacred bird and harbinger of longevity. Alongside elegant avenues and tea houses, the garden has wide expanses of lawn.
Details: Admission £2.50. Open daily, 7:30 am to 6:00 pm, March to September (Okama-korakuen.jp).
Murin-an, modern garden, Kyoto
Just over a mile from the epicenter of the atomic bomb explosion, this Hiroshima gem, Shukkeien Garden, has been restored to its former splendor.
A small but delightful water garden with artificial streams that would not be out of place in Scotland if they were not meticulously maintained and cleaned on a weekly basis. Trees are pruned to incorporate “borrowed” views of distant forested mountains.
Details: Admission £4.50. Open daily, 9 am to 6 pm (murin-an.jp).
Hamarikyu Gardens, Tokyo
These riverside strolling gardens were once private lands of the Tokugawa shogunate. Graceful, winding trails highlight micromanaged trees, including miniature Scots pines whose needles, when they darken and die, are removed by hand.
Details: Adults £1.50, children free. Open daily, 9 am to 5 pm (tokyo-park.or.jp).
Hakone Wetland Botanical Garden
An extremely unusual wetland garden of swamps, marshes and swamps in the elegant Kanagawa Prefecture. Its hugely varied terrain is home to rabbit ear lilies, bog primroses, mountain peonies, dogwoods and countless alpine highland plants.
Details: Adults £3.50, children £2. Open daily, 9am to 5pm, March to November (hakone-shisseikaen.com).
Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo
The closest thing to a park as we would know it, the East Garden of the Imperial Palace is another sanctuary. Entering through a moat, through magnificent walls and gateways, the wide paths and tall trees offer walks that one might find in Hyde Park.
Details: Free entry. Open Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in summer, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in winter (kunaicho.go.jp).
Shukkeien Garden, Hiroshima
Just over a mile from the epicenter of the atomic bomb explosion, this Hiroshima gem has regained its former splendor. A large pond spanned by a symbolic bridge is surrounded by meticulously constructed viewing platforms, each highlighting choreographed views of bamboo forests, tea plantations, peony and plum plantations and artificial islands. Two Gingko trees are identified as survivors of the horrendous fire.
Details: Adult £1.30, children 50p. Open every day, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in summer, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in winter (shukkeien.jp).
The Meiji Shrine in Tokyo (above) “is not so much a garden as an artificial forest of 60,000 trees”
Meiji Shrine, Tokyo
More than a garden, it is an artificial forest of 60,000 trees, planted to hide a splendid shrine to celebrate the Meiji Restoration.
It is the moment in our Victorian era when the former Shogunate handed over to the Emperor and a parliamentary democracy modeled on our own the task of modernizing long-isolated Japan.
Details: Free admission. Open daily (meijijingu.or.jp).
Sagano Bamboo Forest, Kyoto
Hidden behind the 600-year-old Tenryu-ji Zen Buddhist shrine, a UN World Heritage Site, lies a mountainside bamboo forest whose astonishing trees tower above the crowds.
Details: Free entry. Open every day, 24 hours (ja.kyoto.travel).
Ryoan-ji Temple Garden, Kyoto
Japan’s most famous Zen garden, its centerpiece is a raked gravel courtyard in which 15 large rocks are strategically placed for contemplation. Legend has it that if you can see all 15 stones at the same time, you will have achieved enlightenment.
Details: Adults £3, children £1.50. Open every day, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in summer, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in winter (www.ryoanji.jp).