In September, I spent 4 Days in Niigata, Japan and had the pleasure of meeting a Japanese Gardener who mentioned that there are annual Japanese Gardener conferences and the next one would be at the Morikami Gardens in Delray Beach, Florida. I did a start when he mentioned Delray Beach because that was where my grandmother had just moved to. Turns out, these famous gardens are 10 minutes away from her there!
Since I’ve been back in the USA, I’ve mostly based my travels around seeing friends & family, so I knew I would be visiting Delray Beach to see her new home. Besides for spending time with her and my other family there, the only thing on my agenda was visiting these gardens.
Now you may ask yourself, how did these Japanese Gardens get here? And that my friend is an interesting story. tldr; version = in 1903 a Japanese dude visits Florida and decides to start a a Japanese settlement there. Voila! In 1905 the Yamako Colony is born with a mission to explore new agricultural crops & processes. It does alright during WWI, but unfortunately, it’s not a success and the project is abandoned and shut down right before WWII. Which is probably for the best at that point in US history…anyway. The remaining land was donated to be a Japanese Cultural center, museum, gardens, etc.
One thing I found particularly cute was the Japan Through the Eyes of a Child exhibit at the Yamako Island Museum which hit the main Japanese cultural points: vending machines, shinkansen trains, KitKat flavors, and school uniforms.
