10, ENTERTAINMENT, THE HERALD, Wed, Feb. 9, 1977 JAPAN IN MINIATURE by Ed and Jean MacKenzie - Lf a holiday in Japan is beyond your budget this year — don't let it get you down. You can take a low- cost mini-trip. to the Orient via the Nitobe Memorial ROAM AT HOME| A TRAVEL BRITISH COLUMBIA FEATURE [If Garden on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver. There -~ with no. suitcase to pack and no airplane ticket to buy — you can sample a “‘little bit of Japan’’ right here in British Columbia. “ON HIGHWAY 16" 1737- APRPHOVEO 6 HUUAY MOTEL § MASTEA CHARGE CHARGEX FOR RESERVATIONS TELEPHONE 564-6669 MARG AND JOHN RAHIER The place to stay while shopping, skiing, © holidaying, travelling through or just visiting friends, close to major shopping centres, etc. 20th AVENUE FULLY MODERN ELECTRIC HEATING KITCHEN FACILITIES COLOUR TELEVISION GOVT APPROVED 1737 TWENTIETH AVENUE : PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. Vancouver's Nitobe Gardens (B.C. Govt. Photo). The Japanese Garden, opened in 1960, is a living memorial to Dr. Inazo Nitobe, whose work for international understanding gained him the title “Th postle of Peace”. : It's time to renew your Quiroplian Insurance We are ready. willing and able to give you the besi service possible. “SELLING CONVENIENCE” Located beside the Royal Bank & across from. the Woolworth Mon, - Sat. 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. ~ Braid Insuranc Bus.: 635-6142 Wayne shopping Agencies 4648 Lakelse Ave. Terrace, B.C. C Ltd, centre. rr a And the peace of the garden enfolds you, the moment you step beneath the ‘“Thatched Roof Gateway” to wander the winding gravel paths. This is a small world of subtle beauty — a spot: for - relaxation and for personal renewal. Though the life of a huge university es all around it, the garden seems remote, detached from the everyday world. Yet even on the big and bewildering campus, it is easy to find, Simply turn south off Northwest Marine Drive onto the West Mall. A few hundred yards down the West Mall is the entrance to Visitor’s Parking Lot ‘. Turn right into the parking lot. You will find the wicket of the Nitobe Garden at the far northern corner of the lot. The essence of a Japanese © garden is its restrained elegance, which gives the viewer an opportunity to find beauty in quite ordinar things. A tender new leat, sprightly and hopeful, elters at the base of a glacier-scarred boulder. The bare simplicity of an iris stalk is mirrored in the lake. The plump purple globe of a single salal berry, usty with bloom, bobs beside the pathway. Because of this studied understatement, a Japanese garden relies on rock carefully pruned trees an flowering shrubs rather than showy massed banks of blossoms. Spring, a-swirl with drifting cherry ‘petals and fall, rich with golden foliage, are the most colourful times to visit the Nitobe Garden. The garden was designed by Professor Kannosuke Mori of Japan's Chiba University. It arranged it in the traditional manner, artfully creating a “natural” miniature land- scape complete with a mountain stream that spills down a waterfall and forms a lake. The lake, enhanced by a rocky islet, is stocked with foot-long carp, that slip like shaits of orange: light from shadow to rippled shadow. ; The garden stones were chosen with careful at- tention to detail — local boulders whose pale. shapes repeat themselves in the still margins of the pond, sharp red shards trucked from Harrison Lake to glitter in the shady streambed, and from Britannia Reach, ponderous river rocks that squat like rune-stones among the mosses of the Tea Garden. The Tea Garden, with its contemporary Tea House, is tucked ina secluded comer, all but hidden behind a twig “Nightingale Fence”. This effectively sets the Tea House apart as the sanc- tuary that it is— a place for peaceful contemplation. Although the Nitobe Tea House is used only on special occasions, summer visitors may peep through “shoji’’ or sliding doors into the square, mat-floored — ceremony room. This, in fact, is the heart of the garden. The path that leads to this inner sanctum is not just a pleasant stroll through unusual surroundings. This path can lead you to glimpse the world from a Japanese point of view. (This Roam at Home article is one of a series provided by Tourism British Columbia.) NFB travel films - Ié-you love to get out and travel but can’t manage to see as many places as you ’ would.like, take a pleasure tip via the celluloid route. The National Film Board reminds all armchair travellers it distributes In- ey Canada travel films free of charge through its libraries around the province. For more information write to the National Film Board, 1161 West georgia St., Vancouver, B.C. V6éE 3G4 (Tel: 666-1716).