From Ryoanji we walk another fifteen or twenty minutes to Kinkakuji Temple, another truly outstanding site. The gardens are beautiful, but the real highlight is a golden temple, three stories high, sitting above a large pond that reflects the image. It's fantastic, dreamlike. I shoot a million pictures, but it's unlikely that I capture on film the shock of seeing such an amazingly wondrous thing for the first time.
Read MoreEven after years of pouring through books and magazines studying countless pictures of the great aged bonsai from Japan, nothing could have prepared me for the marvel of standing before the living trees themselves. All of them were apparently in perfect health, meticulously groomed, planted in exquisite containers, and everything I saw looked old.
Read MoreBev cared deeply about bonsai and he recognized a situation was developing at this new public garden in Asheville that could have a far-reaching positive effect on the course of bonsai development in his home state — and maybe beyond. With our bonsai program only beginning to take shape, there was no guarantee it would ever amount to anything. Bev did what he could to ensure its success.
Read MoreWhen I think back on that time in Washington so long ago the memory is golden to me, an experience that positively changed my life. Connections made there that April led to other important learning experiences in the years to come, eventually taking me all the way to the other side of the world and back again.
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