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I am in Yokohama, and behind me is the Viking Yun.

And I'm gonna be joining her for a cruise around Japan.

But first I'm gonna go and do some exploring in Tokyo.

Whenever I find myself in a foreign city with a little time on my hands, the first place I want to head for is the local antique or flea market.

So you go mm-hmm.

Where have you brought me?

Wow.

This is the, What is this place?

This place is the, you know, the, uh, antique market.

And do the Japanese people, they like to buy antiques.

Oh, Yes, they do.

These is younger people are more, are much more interested in, and also there are lots of people coming here from other countries.

They are very much interested in Japanese antique.

So I can see it's very popular.

Yes, it is.

Lots of people.

Lots of people.

Yeah.

It's a beautiful day.

Yeah.

On a such a nice day.

Do you buy antiques?

Um, I make pots and Sauce.

You make pots?

Yeah.

These markets are a great way to introduce yourself to a country's history and culture.

And I'll always try to find one small piece that will fit in my suitcase to take home with me.

Film indigo is very popular, isn't it?

In Japan?

Yes, That's right.

It's very, very popular among general public that depending how many times you die.

Yeah.

And then the color will change.

Ah, deeper color will be Born.

Okay.

Okay.

I love that the color is born.

It's beautiful.

I love this.

It's beautiful.

The twice monthly wado market in Tokyo is the largest in Japan, and there's a huge variety of unique antiques for sale here.

And this being Japan, the sellers are ultra polite and usually very knowledgeable about what they're selling.

Oh.

And unlike these places in a lot of other countries, trying to haggle down the prices here is, well, just not the done thing.

Is it possible not to be fascinated by the bonsai tree?

These living works of art symbolizing balance and harmony, and the endless striving for a never to be realized perfection.

In this little oasis of calm, in the heart of frenetic Tokyo at the sh Bonsai Museum, I learned to appreciate the way nature, philosophy, Aesthetics, and history all combined in a serene and timeless beauty.

This is a spectacular bonsai tree.

Tell me how old is it?

So this tree in particular is 800 years old. 800 years old.

Yes.

Oh my God.

That's incredible.

And would that have been grown from a, a seed or not?

No, actually most of these are collected from nature.

They're what you would call Yama Dori, a collected tree from the mountains of Japan.

And they get stunted by the environment where they grow because there's a lack of soil, there's a lack of nutrients.

They live in between pockets of Rocks.

Mm-hmm.

So that keeps the tree small for hundreds and hundreds of years before they got collected and put it into a beautiful bonsai pot like this one.

And just tell me what the bird bonsai actually means.

Bonsai is two Japanese letters.

It's The Vessel, right?

A, a pot and a tree.

So a tree in a pot As it passed down within one family.

Or has it, how, how does, how does, is the tree Inherited By somebody or, So when I say that the tree is 800 years old, that's the, the age of the tree itself.

It has not been a boni for that long.

Okay.

It's been probably a boni for maybe around a hundred years.

Whoa.

Okay.

Um, and it was then sold off in an auction where my teacher bought it and 30 plus years ago.

And then he styled it into what you see now.

Can you talk a little bit about how the tree is kept in the size that it is?

Why doesn't it, I mean, it's obviously contained in a small pot, but you use techniques to, to keep it that, to make it, to, to form the shape, don't you?

Correct.

We don't make the tree small with the size of the pot.

Okay.

We actually, you actually, what you do is you prune the tree back to maintain the same silhouettes, and you also wire the branches so that you can shape and bend the tree into whichever direction and shape you would want.

And that takes years to learn how to do that.

It takes years.

Yes.

Well, that's what you are doing, learning how, correct.

Yeah.

I mean, I imagine this is very valuable.

Yes, it is.

And do they, they get bought and sold as a, as a bonsai market?

Yes.

A lot of these are for sale.

Mm-hmm.

Something like this would cost around a million dollars if not even if not more.

A million dollars.

Yes.

Wow.

So Bonsai actually started in China originally it's called PJ or pen shui over there.

And it was practiced mainly by Buddhist Monk's before it was brought to Japan.

And it was also practiced by Buddhist Monk's in Japan, by zen Buddhist Monk's.

And then it slowly, you know, normal, regular people started doing bonsai.

So that connection was Kinder lost.

Mm-hmm.

But its roots are from, from Buddhism in China.

So there is a zen element.

Yes, there is.

Absolutely.

Yeah, Absolutely.

And let's talk a little bit about Wabi-sabi.

Sure.

Can you, I mean, I'm a big fan of the whole concept of Wabi-sabi mm-hmm.

Which I understand as being the beauty of imperfection, The beauty of imperfection.

Yeah.

There's a really famous, uh, book where the master tells the student to clean all the leaves from the, from the maple tree.

And then the master comes in and hits the maple tree and lets some of the maple leaves fall down.

That's in essence Wabi-sabi.

That's Just beautiful.

Yeah.

I, I think about the poor student, but that's great.

But, but how would, so would this, would there be wabisabi within this tree next to us?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So for example, if you look at the tree, it's not a perfect triangular shape.

Right?

Right.

There's asymmetry in the tree.

There's a lot of richness and softness to the branches, how they move, how the trunk twists.

Right.

And that's, you know, in tangent with what, what Wabi-sabi would be.

Because in Wabi-sabi, there's no symmetry.

Wabisabi is essentially Asymmetric.

Asymmetrical, yeah.

Yeah.

Asymmetrical.

And you still strive to do perfection, but you never get there.

Joseph, tell me, why is this one your favorite?

Well, number one, it's beautiful.

It's stunning.

Number two, it's my favorite Japanese tree to work on.

The junipers, the shimkus.

And number three, this is one of my teacher's best masterpieces.

This is his style right here.

Because what's beautiful is the, that The movement, the trunk movement, not only that, but if you look closely, all of the white, that's all deadwood.

And then this is the living part, the only living part of the tree, the live Vine, which connects down into the roots and all the way up into every single branch.

And this happens in nature.

We didn't do that.

Okay.

So you have the dead and the living intertwined in a single tree.

So all the white wood that we see on these trees is entirely natural.

Well, we do have to preserve the dead wood, and we apply a special chemical Okay.

Called lime sulfur.

And it bleaches the, the dead wood just a little bit.

Okay.

But in nature, this would be a grayish white, not too far from this original color.

Right, right.

You were telling me earlier on that any tree can be bonsai.

Yeah.

Any tree can be a bonsai.

The biggest misconception in Bonsai is that there, they're a dwarf variety of that tree.

But in reality, anything can become a bonsai.

Apples, oranges, anything like this beautiful Japanese maple.

It is gorgeous.

So this, what would this tree look like in November?

In November, for example, the, the leaves change to an ochre yellow, Gorgeous.

And then They lose, they fall down.

And then you have the winter silhouette and you can see each individual branch of the tree.

And Then the excitement of spring when the leaves come back.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Moving On from the reshaping of nature to the repurposing of that staple of Japanese culture, the kimono, I dropped in to meet the team at kimono reborn.

So Esto name is kimono bruel.

And we make caps and t-shirts and backpacks from old kimono.

The kimonos come from like almost a donation, or we buy from the secondhand store.

I'm surprised that Japanese people throw away their kimonos.

I thought they were very precious and they would keep them for their whole life.

Do they throw away kimonos?

Yes.

Right.

We do because, uh, for Japanese it's very usual things and it's very normal.

So it's not special for us.

So we wear the kimonos only for the special occasion.

And after that we throw away The Tokyo sky tree, 2080 feet high.

One of the world's tallest towers.

No bonsai this one.

But it is a great place to get a measure of the vast urban sprawl.

The modern day Tokyo has become.

Can He see his house from here?

We have a fireworks festival every July.

Yeah.

And then the height of the fireworks be 150 meter to 200 meters.

So you can look down to the fireworks from here, Actually.

So do many people come up to see that?

Yes.

Yeah, exactly.

It must be very popular.

Very popular.

I can imagine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And if you look the Japanese traditional building over there, the red building.

Mm-hmm.

But it's a Saint Ji temple.

Okay.

Oh, yes, yes, I see it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's the oldest, oldest temple in Tokyo.

So I know that the Japan has, uh, a problem with earthquakes.

And I'm wondering what did they do to make this building safe?

Tokyo.

Tokyo.

Has he ever been here during an earthquake?

I love this city.

In one day.

Here was enough for me to feel the contrast.

It offers up on the one hand, a cacophony of neon lights, packed subway trains, coffee serving robots and space page toilets.

But on the other hand, you'll find over a thousand shrines and temples, traditional tea houses at historic neighborhoods.

Tokyo is one of the world's most densely populated cities. 14 million people rub along together here, but they do it with great politeness and consideration of others.

And even though my stay here was very short, just for a day, I love being one of them.