A Japanese Experience at Batsford Arboretum

Last month I was in a garden centre with my parents and found myself browsing the rack of leaflets for local travel inspiration. Covid restrictions have meant that I'm going to be stuck living in my family home for at least another couple of months, so I want to try to make the best of the situation by exploring as many interesting nearby places as possible. One thing that I've enjoyed doing is looking for local places that can give you the feeling of being abroad, as it's frustrating to not be allowed to travel outside of the country! And I particularly like visiting places that are reminiscent of countries I've never been to before and which I want to go to in the future.

So when I saw a leaflet for Batsford Arboretum, I was instantly intrigued; the pictures showed cherry blossoms, Japanese bridges, a Japanese style house and a statue of the Buddha. Japan is a country I'd love to visit (I'd previously enjoyed seeing the Japanese gardens in Santiago and Buenos Aires), and visiting the arboretum seemed like a great opportunity to experience a tiny bit of its culture, just a short distance away from where we live.

My parents were also keen to go, and so on Thursday we made the journey to Batsford in the north of Gloucestershire. Unfortunately, there were traffic problems, and we had to take a longer route. But on the positive side, that meant we got to pass through many of the prettiest villages and towns in the Cotswolds, including Barnsley, Bibury, Burford, Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh.

When we arrived, it was time for tea! Matcha lattes and mochi weren't on offer, but I did have a nice vegan chocolate cake and an English Breakfast tea with soya milk.

And then we explored the arboretum! It was a relatively warm and sunny day, which made all the trees and flowers look very pretty. In addition to the plants, the arboretum had plenty of (mostly Japanese) décor, including at least three little red bridges over streams.

We also saw several East Asian inspired statues dotted about, namely a Buddha, two Japanese deer and something called a foo dog, also known as a Chinese guardian lion. (Highfields Park in Nottingham has two of them, and I saw a couple of them in Chinatown too.)

My favourite part of the garden was the Japanese Rest House. It made me feel like I'd walked into a Studio Ghibli movie.

There was another house nearby - a more European-looking fairytale cottage.

Of course, it was also great to see the national collection of Japanese cherry blossom (sakura) trees that the arboretum has. In Japan, there's a tradition called Hanami, where people go to view the blossom every year. It was nice to experience something similar here in England!

In addition, Batsford has other impressive varieties of plants from around the world, including magnolia trees and giant Californian redwoods.

After our walk around the arboretum and a browse in the gift shop, it was time to go back to the car. But before leaving, we said hello to a cute goat and donkey who live near the car park!

Overall, our trip to Batsford Arboretum was a brilliant day out and it felt like a real escape from the routine of everyday life in this current era. It was interesting to visit another local place inspired by a foreign country, following our trip to the Dutch-style Westbury Court Garden earlier this month. There are still a couple of pseudo-foreign local destinations on my to-visit list, and one day I plan to put together a blog post on this topic. (Edit: I finally wrote this post, and here it is!)

Next week our outdoor outing will be to Dyrham Park, a place I've already blogged about twice (in August and in December). So it won't be necessary to write about it again! But I'll be posting soon about another topic!