My grandmother is from Japan so I am a quarter Japanese, and have a huge appreciation for Japanese culture. So when I found out that Morikami Museum & Gardens is three hours away from Orlando I was pretty excited to visit and add it to my travel journal. I use a quick and easy method of journaling detailed in a previous post. Here is a peek at my travel journal from Morikami.

Sight – Beautifully Landscaped Gardens

Six various gardens with Japanese influences that you can have a relaxing stroll through at your leisure. Everything from simple clean rock gardens to lush gardens full of flowers.

Hear – Sounds of Water 

Relax to the calming sounds of flowing water as you walk among the many pathways.

Smell – Koi food

Purchase some koi food in the lobby before leaving to explore the gardens. As you cross the beautiful red bridge, stop and feed the fish. Save some food for later, there are more koi by the museum.

Taste – Bento Box

The veggie bento box from the Cornell Cafe was delicious! It included veggie dumplings, Asian eggplant, fried tofu, cellophane noodles, rice, veggies, egg rolls and sushi all in a beautiful lacquer box! The Asian eggplant was surprisingly my favorite, the sauce on it was really good.  They have a classic bento for the meat eaters reading this and a sushi bento as well.  There are lots of fun flavored sake, and some novelty ice creams I wanted to try but I was too full. Alas, next time.

Touch – Tatami Mats

Make sure you take off your shoes before you step on the tatami mats and take a seat in the sitting area.  The museum has a fun and interactive example of a Japanese house with a kitchen where you could open up the refrigerator and oven, try out some chopsticks and even see what a bathroom would look like. Time to figure out what all those buttons do for our future trip to Japan! There is also an interesting section on the history of the community of Japanese farmers that settled in Florida. These are two permanent exhibits to the museum but there are also some rotating exhibits, workshops, and festivals that take place, so make sure you check their website.

I loved Morikami so much I can’t wait to go back!!

Tips:

1. Get there early, when they open. We arrived shortly after opening and there were quite a few people there already. When we left there were a ton of people arriving.

2. Be prepared to wait in line for the cafe. It goes pretty fast but it is in the sun. It was worth it though, I would definitely go again.

3. Visit when the weather is nice. It’s mostly outside and in the sun so a cool day is the time to visit.

Melissa P.

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