Bonsai bandits at Lake Merritt

One of the joys of living in the Bay Area is discovering random Japan connections close to home.

Last week, I joined a guided tour of the Oakland Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt. The tour was organized by AARP, which admittedly made me feel about 20 years younger than the average participant, but it was a lot of fun. And although the garden is only a short drive away, I took BART because every adventure sounds more legitimate if a train is involved.

If you've never been, it's a lovely spot. A small oasis in Oakland filled with bonsai trees that have been patiently shaped and cared for over decades. In some cases, over a century.

My favorite story was about the famous Daimyo Oak. According to the plaque, the tree was given to Anson Burlingame in 1863 while he was passing through Japan during Lincoln's presidency. Yes, that Burlingame. The city on the Peninsula was later named after him. I went to see tiny trees and somehow ended up learning Bay Area history.

But the biggest surprise was hearing about the garden's brush with organized bonsai crime.

A few years ago, thieves broke through not one but two fences and stole eight bonsai trees. One of them was a rare 100-year-old Hinoki cypress. Apparently bonsai theft has become a thing worldwide, which was not a sentence I ever expected to write.

The good news? The thieves couldn't get away with some of the garden's most valuable trees because they were too big to fit through the hole they had cut in the fence.

Imagine planning a heist, breaking through multiple security barriers, and then being defeated by basic geometry.

One redwood apparently made it all the way to the fence before the thieves realized it wasn't going anywhere.

Walking around the garden, it was easy to understand why the volunteers were so upset. These aren't just plants. Many have been cared for by generations of enthusiasts and each one is completely unique.

The garden survived, thankfully, and continues to thrive thanks to an amazing group of volunteers.

So my Fun Friday recommendation if you’re in the Bay Area: skip doomscrolling for an afternoon and go visit the Oakland Bonsai Garden instead. You'll see beautiful trees, learn some unexpected Japanese-American history, and hear the tale of the bonsai burglars whose master plan was foiled by a tree that wouldn't fit through a hole.

Honestly, that's a much better story than most things on Netflix.