Japanese Garden

This guide to the Japanese Garden in Kadriorg Park, Tallinn, follows landscape designer Masao Sone, trained in Kyoto, whose first attempt to plant true Japanese species collapsed against the region's brutal winters, sending him back to test which plants could pass for Japanese while actually surviving the Baltic cold. You'll hear how he read Tallinn's Old Town skyline into the garden's boulders, tall stones for spires and low ones for rooftops, and how its wooden bridges were built in Japan and shipped here in pieces. Stand among the stepping stones and you're walking through his second attempt at getting it right.