A slice of Japan in Florida

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, my husband was working, my girls were in Sunday school, and despite all the housework that needed to be done I was day dreaming about travel. Of course I begin scrolling through my Instagram and Pinterest feeds and start seeing all these wonderful pictures of spring in Japan.  Then I remembered that about 1 hr away from home is Morikami Museum and Japanese gardens.  Despite living in South Florida for well over one decade I had not visited these gardens yet. So without any more thought or planning I decided that today was the day I would visit this little slice of Japan in Florida.

I picked up my girls and informed them of our afternoon activities.  We were all excited to spend some nice quiet and peaceful times together learning a bit more about Japan while strolling through the gardens and museum.  Much to our surprise, these normally quiet gardens were anything but quiet and peaceful.  Morikami was holding their yearly Hatsume Fair.

What is a Hatsume Fair? This is Morikami’s largest annual event and the traditionally tranquil park is transformed into a Japanese Spring Festival.  Once we got over the shock of all the people we really enjoyed the day and all this fair had to offer.

We watched some martial arts, Japanese dance performances, sword fighting performances, and one of my favorite the Taiko drumming by Fushu Daiko.

You can see and listen to a small sample here.

Even though the gardens were packed with people we did manage to explore a bit and find a few peaceful spots.

The girls also really enjoyed the permanent exhibit “Japan through the eyes of a child”.  It is a hands on exhibit where you learn about the transportation, money, school, shops, home life and much more.

Morikami has much more to offer and we look forward to future visits where we can explore more of the gardens and where we can take advantage of the different events and exhibits such as the Lantern Festival, the Bonsai Walk, a Japanese tea ceremony or sushi class.

So if you live in South Florida and have the desire to visit Japan but are not able to get there just yet, you can visit Morikame and experience a slice of Japan in Florida.

Have you visited any Japanese Gardens?  If so, I would love to hear about where you visited and what your experience was like.

Happy Roving!!!!