Seattle Japanese Garden
This formal garden occupies a 3.5-acre plot within the Washington Park Arboretum, but it’s its own entity, managed by the city (with much help from dedicated volunteers). It was designed in the late 1950s by landscape architects from the Tokyo Parks Division as a traditional “walking garden”: visitors follow a set path that takes them past a pagoda, a koi pond, a waterfall, and a teahouse, interspersed among the trees, shrubs, flowers, and rocks. Tuesday through Friday, volunteers lead tours twice a day. Most weeks, usually on weekends, you can take part in a 40-minute tea ceremony in the teahouse. Reservations are required; the $15-dollar charge (separate from admission) includes tea and snacks.
