Tokachi Millennium Forest
Visiting a leafy paradise in Hokkaido, Japan.
One of the perks of being in a relationship with a ballet superstar is being able to tag along to his work trips abroad. Ballet has always been global and popular around the world, particularly in Japan, where Will has been out to dance nearly every year of his career. I’ve been lucky to work out there a few times when it’s been on our international touring route, but never for a holiday, so when we pulled out our year planners last Christmas to look at the year ahead and saw we had a rare alignment in our calendars, I quickly set about scouring the internet for the best flights to travel out to see him whilst he was out on tour with the Royal Ballet in Tokyo. Taking advantage of a BA sale and using all my points, I managed to book my flight out there, and busily got to planning our down time, taking advantage of the few days off here and there he’d have between shows and rehearsals to book in some trips, escaping the heat of the city, and seeing more of what this incredible country has to offer.
High on both our lists for a several years now has been the Tokachi Millennium Forest, nestled in the centre of Japans most northernly island, Hokkaido. A project 30 years in the making, the land was purchased by media mogul Mitsushige Hayashi as a way of offsetting his carbon emissions, and 20 years ago he brought landscape designer Dan Pearson on board to help steer the ship and design a space that would connect the gardens to the wider landscape, helping to regenerate wildlife and floral diversity after it had been used for intensive agriculture for many years. Flight and car hire booked, we managed to carve out 48 hours to whisk Will away from rehearsals of Giselle to get in a visit to this foresty paradise.
One of the reasons why we both love the work of Dan Pearson is that he has an ability to create spaces that feel so creative, but also like they’ve been growing there without human intervention, grounding the gardens he creates in to their surrounding landscape with such a strong sense of place. He also possess excellent articulation when talking about plants and gardens, and I’m currently rereading his book “Natural Selection’, a collection of his columns from 10 years writing for the Observer, for perhaps the 3rd time, as its so crammed full of information and ideas, but presented in the most effortless and evocative way.
Speaking of books, it must be said there’s an excellent one published in 2020 written by Dan and head gardener Midori Shintani that I’d highly recommend if you’d like to see more of this remarkable place. It’s coffee table level in the beauty of its photography, and a gardeners dream as they share at length the design process, planting plans and matrix’s, even going as far as providing a plant list for each garden with three columns - original planting, additional planting, and removed/failed - generous beyond belief. Link here to take a look.
The Design
