We spent this afternoon strolling around Keisei Rose Garden, one of the largest rose gardens in Japan, which is located very close to here. It’s only two stops away by train and then a 10 to 15 minute walk. When we got off the train, we weren’t sure which way to go to find the garden. While we were consulting the poster and map in the station, a young Japanese couple came along. They were looking for the garden too. The girl spoke English quite well and when none of us could figure out the directions on the map, we stopped into the station convenience store. They asked for directions in Japanese and then led the way!

The garden was beautiful. Many of the blooms had taken a beating by the recent rainstorms but, in spite of that, we were surrounded by every variety and colour imaginable and the aroma was sensational.

Have you ever wondered what a rose tastes like? I hadn’t, but today I found out! After touring the garden, we decided to treat ourselves to cones at the soft ice cream shop. We couldn’t read the signs but it was quite obvious that we had three choices – pink, white or half and half. We both chose the half and half, not knowing for sure what we were getting. It was logical to assume that the white would be vanilla but the pink was a darker shade than strawberry usually is so we weren’t sure what it would be. The moment I tasted it, I was pretty sure I knew. They say that taste and smell are closely related. I can’t describe the flavour other than to say that it tasted exactly the way that roses smell! I was quite sure that we were eating rose flavoured ice cream! It definitely wasn’t rosehip either. Rosehip tea is one of the few herbal teas that we’ve been able to find here so we drink it quite often in the evenings and I would have recognized that flavour. My suspicions were confirmed when we discovered that the gift shop sold rose petal jam.