Spring Comes to the Nippon Kan Garden
This
past March of 2003, Denver, Colorado received it’s heaviest snowfall in one storm
in the last fifty years. In some parts of the Denver County over seven feet 
of
snow fell in a forty-eight hour period. Earlier this month in May, Denver was hit by
another freak snowstorm, this time much less powerful, but destructive in its own right.
Nippon Kan was lucky in that the gardens escaped a lot of damage for the most part due
to the efforts of the Nippon Kan crew, who kept a vigilant watch on the garden and kept
the snow from building up on the newly budding branches.
As
the garden begins to bloom, visitors begin to gather at Nippon Kan. In May alone, the garden
was the setting for an election returns reception, an Inn of Court for the Minori Yasui
Foundation, and five Denver Public School field trips totaling about five hundred children.
Nippon Kan dojo opened its spring Beginner’s class series which enrolled over
75 students. 
Not
only a place for the martial arts, Nippon Kan has become a gathering place for many community
events. As the garden grows, more people will come to sit in the shade of its trees and
take in the sites of Japan in spring.