Historic Joy Kogawa House is the childhood home of Canadian author Joy Kogawa. Now used as a site for author residencies and literary events, the house stands as a historical reminder of the internment experience of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, and by extension, to the experiences of diverse cultural and ethnic groups within Canadian society.

They have partnered with the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival and Winnipeg poet Sally Ito, who would have led this walk as part of her author residency at Historic Joy Kogawa House. Unable to travel west due to current restrictions, however, Sally has instead written haiku to accompany locations on a self-guided walk of the Marpole neighbourhood that begins and ends at the heritage house.

Here is a map of the whole route.

As it is a virtual walk, you needn’t worry about which cherry trees are in bloom when, but if you will be checking it out on foot, the map comments indicate roughly when the trees would be in bloom. Many of these cherry trees are in bloom now!

Find out more at kogawahouse.com.