cool japan
The Edible Japanese Garden
On my way to work, I found this tiny little garden. Some usual green in front of an apartment house was what I thought. But then I came closer and realized something… The border was planted with Satsuki azaleas but inside were almost only edible plants! I want to believe that the family which moved […]
[New eBook] Zuiho-in temple in Daitoku-ji Kyoto
My first trip to Kyoto was back in April 2006. On my list were many famous temples including Daitoku-ji. However, I didn’t visit the Zuiho-in sub-temple back then. In 2014 and 2015, I visited Kyoto again, also Daitoku-ji, but only for special autumn openings and Zuiho-in was not on that list. Finally, in 2019, I […]
Craving Nature but Can’t Stand the Heat – Gardens to visit in Tokyo
Summer is a living nightmare for most in Japan with temperatures only getting higher in recent years. As a professional gardener living and working in Tokyo for the past seven years, I have no choice but to leave our lovely air-conditioned office and head to whichever garden we are working on. However, the truth […]
Public Garden Tour in Kiyosumi Garden
Hi there! If you follow us on Social Media, you will know that I had my Kiyosumi garden tour on June 15. And I did it in the pouring rain! And do you know? We had a lot of fun! It seems that the weather made some people not to come and I ended up […]
Pruning shrubs in Japanese gardens (karikomi)
Karikomi is a special design and pruning technique in a Japanese garden which is often seen done with plants of the Rhododendron family in Japan. It is separated into the usual karikomi and o-karikomi – a larger element in the garden put together by more than one shrub. What I want to talk about here […]
Moss in the Japanese garden
This post was a request by one of our followers on Instagram. If you want me to cover a special topic, feel free to contact me! Moss is commonly seen as a signature plant for a Japanese garden. Although not every Japanese garden will be covered with moss, it is still widely spread. Usually, it […]
[New eBook] Hasedera
Years ago I frequently visited Kamakura with its many temples. While I visited really a lot of temples, one temple listed on our website I always missed. This was Hasedera. Now that I planned to complete the eBooks for the Kamakura area I visited the temple twice and started with this garden to continue the […]
Snow protection for trees and shrubs in Niigata – Yukigakoi 雪囲い
When I visited Niigata last year in November, I found that the trees there are not protected in the way I knew from Tokyo and other regions of Japan. A large amount of snow in winter makes it necessary to create very strong protections for trees on Hokkaido and along the coast of the Japanese […]
[Book review] The Garden’s rope work / 目で見る庭のロープワーク
目で見る庭のロープワーク / The Garden’s rope work First published 1980. Reviewed edition first published May 30 2008. By Junzou Ishida / 龍居庭園研究所 Paperback ISBN-10: 4-87460-985-6 ISBN-13: 978-4-87460-985-9 222 Pages ¥ 1300 +tax I couldn’t find any additional information about the author. Introduction by the author (translated and summarized by the reviewer): During the creation of this book the author […]
An invitation to Ryugon – one of the most famous guesthouses in Japan
In November, right before the first heavy snowfall, I had the chance to visit the famous ryokan (traditional Japanese guesthouse) Ryugon. The Ryugon opened its doors in 1964, the same year the Olympics took place in Tokyo. However, most of the buildings on the grounds are much older! Utsugi, the founder of this ryokan, saw […]