It came about almost accidentally, this trip to Japan; I was talking with a friend sometime last fall about my wish to go there and take in the Kokufu Show, the biggest bonsai event of the year held in Tokyo. He said he’d been there once with his wife and thought about returning…as the conversation wore on, it was clear to see we were in accord and plans were made. If you had asked me a year ago if this would be the year I’d be doing this, my answer would have been ‘probably not’ 😉  It turns out this year was a double show; opening week would be one set of trees, which were changed out on the weekend and a completely new set of trees were exhibited during the second week. The general public was not allowed to photograph the exhibit, so no photos of trees from the…