Tea and scones in Japan? Exploring a 19th-century diplomats’ summer retreat in Okunikko
- On the shores of beautiful Lake Chuzenji, near Nikko, former embassy villas have become museums, tea rooms and event spaces
- Spring and autumn are the best times to visit the region that is also renowned for its hiking
Cucumber sandwiches? Tea in bone china cups? Scones? We must be in Blighty. One could be forgiven for reaching that conclusion, but the British Embassy Villa Memorial Park, on the shores of Japan’s Lake Chuzenji, is a world away from Mother England. After Japan began opening up, in 1853, foreign diplomats stationed a long way from home discovered Okunikko – a lesser-known part of Nikko, a small city in the mountains of Tochigi prefecture, nearly two hours by train north of Tokyo – and quickly adopted it as their summer home. Some of them are still here.
So what is the story behind this property? Sir Ernest Satow, a British diplomat stationed in Tokyo, first visited Okunikko in 1872 and fell in love with the area. He wrote a guide book to Nikko and, in 1896, his villa was completed on the shores of the lake, starting a trend for spending summers in these mountains. The villa was used by a succession of British diplomats before being handed over to the city in 2008.
The property has been turned into a museum about Satow and the British diplomatic community. Upstairs, the length of the building opens to incredible views over the water. Fittingly, the small restaurant serves tea and scones, as well as light meals and decidedly un-English croissants.
So what does the park tell us? Diplomats in Japan lived very pleasant lives. The two-storey building covers more than 460 square metres and was sited for optimum vistas. The ground floor has been remodelled, with two rooms for exhibits behind a veranda with sliding doors.
One of the rooms depicts – in images, maps and letters – Satow’s early life in England, from where he arrived in Japan aged just 19. The second room is fitted out with old-fashioned furniture and details the lives of Western diplomats in Okunikko. Upstairs, a former bedroom houses an impressive writing desk as well as photos related to Britain’s long friendship with Japan. The garden is confined to a narrow strip of grass and pathway between the veranda and the lake, but it is a nice spot in which to while away a few hours with a good book – as Satow surely did.
Have other nationalities left a mark in Okunikko? A short stroll along the shore is the Italian Embassy Villa, which has also been restored and turned into a museum. The three upstairs bedrooms look across the lake and a wooden jetty, where ambassadors once moored their yachts.