In Basho’s Footsteps: Traveling Through Japan in Cherry Blossom Season

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 29, 2019

SEQUIM — Wendy Feltham, Port Townsend photographer and amateur naturalist, will present “In Basho’s Footsteps: Traveling Through Japan in Cherry Blossom Season” on Thursday — the final event of the 2019 Traveler’s Journal series.

Admission is $5 for adults; youths 18 and younger will be admitted for free.

The show starts at 7 p.m. at the Guy Cole Event Center at Carrie Blake Community Park, 202 N. Blake Ave.

Feltham’s Japanese penpal invited her to celebrate their 50th anniversary as pen pals by following the route of the renowned 17th century haiku poet Matsuo Basho.

They started in her hometown of Ogaki at the Basho Museum, visited Kyoto at the height of the cherry blossom season, then traveled north to the magnificent temples and shrines Basho explored 400 years ago.

They read from his haiku and his book of travels, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” while discovering gardens, sacred places and delicious cuisine.

Japan is a country filled with extraordinary treasures and beauty.

Feltham’s journey was unique because she was guided by a remarkably talented bilingual Japanese woman who teaches internationally about Japanese culture.

Feltham is a photographer, naturalist and community volunteer from Port Townsend who has traveled in Europe, South America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam.

Traveler’s Journal is a presentation of the Peninsula Trails Coalition with local adventurers sharing their stories and photos. All of the money raised is used to buy project supplies and food for the volunteers working on the Olympic Discovery Trail.

Each year the dream of a continuous trail from Port Townsend to Forks gets a little closer. In 2017, about 200 volunteers put in more than 9,000 hours of labor on the trail.

One selected photo enlargement is given each week as a door prize.

Call Arvo Johnson at 360-301-9359 for more information.