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Kew Gardens is already a pretty banging place to while away an afternoon. It was, lest we forget, voted best garden in the whole world quite recently. You don’t win such accolades by accident. You win them by being fucking great. And that’s what Kew is.
The Richmond plant precinct (hard to think of synonyms for ‘gardens’ tbh) is about to get even more fucking great. Throughout the month of October it’s embracing autumn with a festival simply called ‘Japan’. For dedicated ‘Nihonophiles’ like myself, that is great news.
The fest will be a celebration of the Asian country’s plants, art and culture, so visitors can expect eye-catching displays and installations as well as a momijigari trail winding its way around the gardens. A momijigari trail, by the way, is the Japanese tradition of visiting locations brimming with bright red leaves in autumn. Lovely.
There’s also a load of stuff going on inside Temperate House. A massive installation, ‘One Thousand Springs’, by artist Chiharu Shiota is made from 5,000 haikus hung in a web of red threads at the glasshouse’s centre. There will also be the Chalk Garden, created by an award-winning landscape designer and absolutely tons of Japan’s national flower, the chrysanthemum.
Crucially, the big KG is also opening up for a few lates this year. Hooray for lates! On October 8,9, 15 and 16 you’ll be able to wander round after the sun goes down. They have all sorts planned, including flower-arrangement demonstrations and music by Butoh UK and Anchorsong.
‘Japan’ at Kew Gardens runs Oct 2-31. Book tickets here.