While Hokkaido is often celebrated for its dramatic natural landscapes and winter sports, it also offers serene escapes in its beautiful traditional Japanese gardens. These gardens are designed with meticulous attention to detail and deep philosophical underpinnings, providing spaces not only for aesthetic appreciation but also for meditation and tranquility. This guide explores some of the most peaceful and picturesque Japanese gardens in Hokkaido, each offering a unique blend of natural beauty and cultural heritage.
Asahikawa’s Ueno Farm
Experience: Ueno Farm is a charming garden that blends traditional Japanese garden techniques with influences from English garden design. This fusion creates a unique landscape that changes with the seasons.
Highlight: The garden’s Naya Cafe offers a place to relax and enjoy the view over a cup of herbal tea made from garden-grown ingredients.
Learn More: Ueno Farm
Tokiwa Park in Asahikawa
Experience: Located in the heart of Asahikawa, Tokiwa Park is a historical park that includes a traditional Japanese garden. The garden features stone lanterns, a koi pond, and a tea house, embodying the tranquil aesthetics of Japanese landscape design.
Highlight: Visit during autumn when the maple trees turn a vibrant red, creating a stunning contrast with the evergreen pines and the calm, mirror-like ponds.
Visit Tokiwa Park: Tokiwa Park
Sapporo’s Maruyama Park and Hokkaido Shrine
Experience: Maruyama Park is a large recreational area famous for its cherry blossoms in the spring. Adjacent to the park is the Hokkaido Shrine with its traditional Shinto architecture, which includes beautifully maintained garden areas that reflect Japanese spiritual and aesthetic principles.
Highlight: The park and shrine area is especially beautiful in early May during the cherry blossom season but offers a peaceful retreat year-round.
Explore Maruyama Park: Maruyama Park
Noboribetsu’s Hell Valley (Jigokudani)
Experience: While not a traditional garden in the strictest sense, Noboribetsu’s Hell Valley offers a different type of landscape that incorporates natural volcanic features into its aesthetic. The walking paths and viewing platforms allow visitors to appreciate the rugged beauty of this geothermal area.
Highlight: The mineral-rich waters feeding into the valley’s hot springs create natural onsen baths, where visitors can relax while surrounded by dramatic steam vents and sulfur deposits.
Discover Hell Valley: Jigokudani
Conclusion
The traditional Japanese gardens of Hokkaido provide a quiet contrast to the island’s wild, untamed nature, offering spaces of reflection and tranquility that pay homage to the detailed and contemplative aspects of Japanese culture. Each garden, whether purely Japanese in style or influenced by other gardening traditions, is a testament to the art of landscape design and a must-visit for those seeking peace and beauty.
Visiting these gardens offers a moment of peace amid life’s busyness, a chance to slow down, and an opportunity to reflect on the beauty that can be crafted when nature and culture intertwine. Whether you are a garden enthusiast or just looking for a peaceful break, Hokkaido’s gardens are enchanting places that are sure to soothe the soul.
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