Garden

Spring Awakening

Garden travel can change the way you look at your own spaces for the rest of the year, which is why now is the best time to devote a full calendar day to visiting the Portland Japanese Garden.

A serene and ever-changing reflection of the seasons and beauty of the Pacific Northwest for over half a century, the garden’s $33.5 million Cultural Village, completed in 2017 and designed by world-renowned architect Kengo Kuma, elevates the destination into a fully transformative cultural experience — one that might change how you view your life, if not just your own backyard.
 
The expanded, 12-acre site is laid out in eight separate public gardens, including three new gardens designed to coax visitors with moments of beauty and visual delight into the complex’s main areas: an entry garden with cascading ponds and a terraced stone pathway; a courtyard garden providing pops of green and organic motifs in the site’s new Cultural Village; and the Ellie M. Hill Bonsai Terrace, where local bonsai artists exhibit a rotating collection of species and styles of the small trees. 

After experiencing the gardens, warm up with a pot of matcha in the serene, glass-boxed Umami Café; take a workshop at the Garden House; pick up some Japanese incense at the Garden Gift Shop; or experience the refined simplicity of the spring 2018 exhibition, “Hanakago: The Art of Bamboo and Flowers” (February 3-April 1, 2018).

japanesegarden.org