Where oh where Wednesday: Japanese gardens in Hasselt

About 20-30 minutes away from where we live is the largest garden of its kind in Europe. We have never visited (yet) even though we often are in Hasselt, where this garden is found. We have a few of our members in Maastricht who live in or near Hasselt and we know other brothers and sisters from the church in Hasselt. But this garden is something completely different. 

Although Shirley and I have never visited Japan, we know a little bit about for various reasons. My brother is married to a gal from Okinawa and our nieces and nephew are half-Japanese. We have good friends who have been sharing the gospel in Japan for decades. And one of the first people from a foreign culture who came to Christ in Maastricht was a man from Japan. We still have contact with him although he now lives with his Dutch wife in Leiden. 

So 20-30 minutes away we could visit the Japanese Gardens in Hasselt, Belgium. Back in 1985 Hasselt and the Japanese city of Itami became friends, sister cities. Hasselt decided to give Itami a carillon tower and Itami gave Hasselt the Japanese garden. The garden was built not as a small city garden, but an expansive site of 2.5 hectares where a meadow had previously graced the countryside. 

The connection of Hasselt with Itami is not such a strange one. The city of Hasselt is known for its jenever, or gin. This is made from berries on a juniper bush. I remember growing up in Colorado that we had some juniper bushes in our front yard I didn’t know that you could get gin from them. Itami is famous for its sake. Sake, which is made from rice, is said to have originated in Itami. 

Although we have never yet visited this garden, we have visited the Japanese Gardens in San Diego while on our Home Assignments and visiting family who live there. You can find some pictures here that may be reminiscent of what we will find in Hasselt when, hopefully soon, we visit the gardens which are basically in our back yard.