Visit winter Japanese garden
Yesterday, I guided a family of four from New York to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace and Koishikawa Korakuen. This time, they had applied for a course to tour Japanese gardens after they watching my profile on a registered Canadian travel agency. They are very interested in Japanese gardens and horticulture, and enjoy gardening in their own gardens, planting Japanese maples in them. I had a great time showing such guests around. Unfortunately, the peak of the autumn leaves had passed, but they still enjoyed the garden, with its red and yellow leaves still remaining, and the passing of autumn and the arrival of winter.
Japanese gardens landscape
Looking down on the garden from a high vantage point, I explained how the evergreen and deciduous trees, both large and small, are skillfully arranged to create an attractive landscape, and explained why evergreen plants such as pine and bamboo are so popular with Japanese people, while explaining about craftman’s skill on straw snow hanging and New Year decorations. I think they enjoyed a unique way to enjoy a garden in winter. All the photos, except for the lunch photo, were taken the day before during the preliminary inspection.
All of my outdoor work for this year, both paid and unpaid, is now finished, and I’m feeling a little like it’s the end of the year (although I still have a lot of desk work left).
Looking back on this year, there were periods when I couldn’t get any work and I got anxious, and then I got infected with COVID-19 and had to quickly ask for a replacement guide, so I experienced the hardships and sorrows of being a self-employed person, but overall I think I was able to manage my time in a relaxed and enjoyable way.
I’m thinking of not scheduling too much outside work like a guide until around mid-January, and instead spending some time relaxing and doing desk work like organizing accounting and finance-related work and improving my website.
It’s a little early, but I hope you all have a happy holiday season and new year.
This tour was organized through Tours by Locals.
One of the best tours we had in our many travels to Japan and many other countries. Atsuhiro-san came prepared with a custom tailored infomration package and gave us a complete and infomrative brief before we started. He is very knowledgeable about the history of Japanese gardens as well as details of every place we visited . We enjoyed his company and we learned a lot about Japanese gardens and larger context in which they are developed. Highly recommended this delightful tour with this great guide.
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