So this summer we took a trip to Japan. Much of our time was spent in both the city and the countryside. Some of my favorite parts of the travel (many, many hours on the trains!) involved just looking at the landscape as it passed us by. Everything appeared new and unique and I felt like my brain was just bursting with ideas for projects back home. One morning in Kobe I made this watercolor. We had been to a Japanese bathhouse the day before and this is one of the images that was still fresh in my mind the morning after. Amidst the dramatic mountains was a simple house with a small rack next to it for the bike to sit and bunches of onions to dry. As an avid gardener I also loved seeing the gardens that were all around in the country. When we were in Tokyo there were no gardens and I wondered, “what do people eat, where do they get their food here in Tokyo?” But as we took the train out to Yamanashi the houses grew smaller and almost all of them had an abundance of vegetables growing close at hand. As an avid gardener I really enjoyed the brief glimpse we got into the gardening culture in Japan. In the middle of winter I’m beginning to get garden fever again. So as I’m beginning to plan my garden for a new season I’m also thinking of the gardens I saw over the summer, dreaming of drinking cool cups of Hoijicha or eating some green tea-flavored ice cream.

~Greg