Late spring flowers

Azalea, wisteria, phlox...

Just before Golden Week (late April), a whole host of flowers burst into full bloom, sparking a frenzy of flower viewing. I travelled to Tatebayashi in Gunma prefecture, to see "shibazakura" - phlox, and "tsutsuji" - azaleas. Closer to home, Nezu shrine has a spectacular tsutsuji matsuri, Kameido shrine is famous for "fuji" - wisteria, and my old favourite, Horikiri Shobuen (most famous for its irises in late June/July) also has gorgeous wisteria and peonies.

In Tatebayashi, the newly revamped "The Treasures Garden" has carpets of pale pink, magenta and blue shibazakura, plus an English-style walled garden. It's a lovely place to walk around and they have THE BEST sakura flavour icecream! You can also buy potted plants to take home and honey made from local flowers.

Shibazakura at The Treasures Garden

That's the real colour - no enhancement needed!

There's also a "viburnum walk"

Getting there: we drove - it's about 30 mins from Omiya on the expressway. You can take a train to Tatebayashi station, then a taxi (about 10 mins) or you can walk from Morinji Station (about 15 minutes). Entrance fee is around 500 yen for adults.

Then we headed over to the famous azalea park, Tsutsujigaoka park, about 10 minutes drive away. It is VERY popular at the peak of azalea season, which falls at the beginning of Golden Week. Bus loads of old ladies were disgorging into the souvenir shops and tour groups were traipsing through the hills of flowers. It is spectacular, though: over 10,000 azalea trees - they're too big to be bushes - some of them are over 800 years old. I was also impressed that the toilet facilities were clean and new and had real, fresh flowers! There are lots of casual snack places to enjoy a beer and some yakitori or dango.

Flowers, as far as the eye can see

You can also take a mini river cruise, but it only goes in a circle.

Some of the older trees

Yay! Camera Ojisan!

Getting there:You can take a taxi or bus from Tatebayashi station. It's about an hour and a half by train from Tokyo on the Tobu Isesaki line. Entrance fee is around 300 yen at the beginning and end of the azalea season, and 600 yen at the peak.

Closer to home, I love Nezu Jinja any time of year (there are some great taiyaki shops nearby and you must try the karinto - sweet, fried cookies!). The Tsutsuji Matsuri starts about a week before Golden Week and there are lots of stalls selling yakisoba, takoyaki and grilled corn. A lot of women dress up in their spring kimono, which look lovely contrasted with the bright pink hills. It costs about 200 yen to enter the garden, but you can also just see it from the shrine grounds, for free.

Nezu shrine with red torii gates and a hill of azaleas with meandering paths, is lovely.

The image of wisteria flowers growing over a trellis is a classic in Japanese traditional art, and the most celebrated place to see it is Kameido Tenjin shrine (see my post about Kameido, here: http://minimeibutsu.blogspot.jp/2012/05/kameido.html) But for my money, the best place to go is Horikiri Shobuen, in Katsushika ward. It's just 15 minutes from Ueno on the Keisei line (ok, I'm biased - I used to live 5 mins walk from the park). For one thing, it's free, and on a weekday, you'll have the place almost to yourself. Grab a few onigiri from the shop near Horikiri station and enjoy your lunch sitting under the wisteria.

Wisteria at Horikiri Shobuen, a 10 minute walk from Horikiri station.

Sakura sakura

April 2

April is an exciting month in Japan. After the long winter, the signs of spring, even though the days are still chilly, make everyone feel upbeat and hopeful. Shops are decked out in pink and spring green. Kids start school and new employees start at companies.

Near the Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Last year, of course, spring was pretty subdued after the disasters in Tohoku. Most hanami (cherry blossom viewing parties) were cancelled. The sakura still bloomed, but it was a really bitter-sweet feeling, especially when news cameras showed the glorious blossoms in the abandoned towns in Fukushima. Beautiful ghost towns.

This year, it was all on, with a focus on sake and foods from Northern Japan, to show support. The sakura bloomed late this year, due to the cold, and we actually got two weekends with lots of blossoms. A friend visiting from England asked me why Japanese people seem so crazy about cherry blossoms. Looking at the huge number of sakura-themed foods, alcohols, decorations, accessories, fabrics and pop songs, I’d have to agree – people go a bit sakura-mad!

Sakura theme chopstick rests

It's surprising how many sakura themed dishes we have at home

For one thing, I guess, there’s the fleeting beauty aspect. The flowers reach full bloom for such a short time, then they fall and drift on the breeze like confetti. You have a week at most to enjoy them. On the other hand, they bloom every year, so there’s a feeling hope – no matter how bad things are / how cold the winter, spring and sakura will return. It’s also a time of endings and new beginnings in life. This means farewell and entrance ceremonies at school and drinking parties for new recruits. Everyone feels nostalgic remembering their first days on the job, or starting high school at this most photogenic time (many schools have a cherry blossom tree in their grounds, perfect for new class photos).

Our local shrine

Sakura "confetti" at Asukayama park, Oji

Capturing this nostalgia, of course, are annual sakura-themed pop songs (it’s not so different to the Western rush to release a Christmas song each year). The theme is almost always bitter-sweet. One of my favourites is “Sakura” by Kobukuro. The harmonies are lovely but the lyrics are a sad tale of loneliness and lost love. I’d also recommend “Sakurabito” by Every Little Thing (lost love encapsulated in a flower petal) and “Sakura” by Ikimono gakari (graduation and saying goodbye to young love). See? They’re all beautiful, but terribly wistful. Addictive.

I love the colour of these sakura jellies

Sakura mochi is sweet bean paste enveloped in pink mochi, finished with a lightly salted, preserved cherry leaf

Delicious jellies with a whole cherry inside

When I lived near Ueno park, we’d always have a huge, raucous hanami party. It’s one of the most popular parks in Tokyo, with around 1,000 sakura trees, so you can imagine, it gets packed! A few brave friends (thank you, Emiko!) would camp out overnight on the Saturday, so we could have a great space under the blossoms for Sunday. Actually, the party goes all night, with departing groups handing left-over alcohol and snacks on to the next people. We met otaku guys who brought their Gundam figures along for the party, and questionable cosplayers (why do guys always want to dress like Sailor Moon?), who would save space for us and share their hot coffee (it’s still really cold at hanami time – sleeping bags and snowboarding gear are essential for camping out). You’ll see people at their convivial best and drunken worst in hanami season! Sometimes, the camping party went so well, those hardy folks would have to go home to recover and miss the ‘official’ party, but we’d all meet up later at an izakaya.

Ueno park at night

Our precious space!

I have fond memories of young guys running around the park in pink nurse costumes, yakisoba stalls, the wine shops and pizza guys that deliver to the park, receiving random, huge bottles of sake from passers-by, chatting with the homeless guys, finding sakura petals in your hair or (very lucky) in your sake, everyone bringing treats they’d made, like onigiri, tamagoyaki, potato salad and lots of fried chicken and the organised way everyone cleaned up and disposed of their rubbish for recycling. Not so fond memories: waiting for 30 minutes or more in the toilet line, feeling like creatures in a zoo as thousands of people shuffled past, staring and taking photos.

I'd love to say everyone makes gorgeous bentos, but we're not quite so organised

There's a saying, "hana yori dango" - food over flowers, but maybe it should be "hana yori beer".

Nagashibina 流し雛

The last word on dolls

Ok, I'm sort of cheating. This is a festival that happens just after Hinamatsuri in a lot of areas, but in Iwatsuki it actually takes place on the Sunday before Golden Week, at the end of April.

Under the tree, people are putting nagashibina - paper dolls in straw baskets - into the water

People buy or make paper dolls in straw baskets and float them down the river or out to sea. The idea is, in a kind of sympathetic magic, the dolls will carry all your bad luck and bad spirits away. This practice predates the tradition of displaying elaborate dolls at home. It's mentioned in The Tale of Genji, in the "Suma" chapter, so it's at least 1,000 years old.

People also included messages or wishes

I once saw a TV drama where the young woman had terrible luck in love and life in general. Her grandfather, a doll maker, persuades her to float a pair of dolls down the river and pray for her situation to change - so I guess you could do it any time.

In truth, the park in Iwatsuki has a large pond, not a river, so the dolls were floating away thanks to a man hidden behind a screen, with a big paddle to make an artificial current. The kids didn't seem to notice though!

The park had a really festive atmosphere. Little girls in kimono gave a koto recital, people were collecting donations for the Tohoku disaster, food stalls were serving up yakisoba and they were handing out free Amazake, made from fermented rice. It's very low in alcohol, but has quite a distinct, sweet, fermented taste. Served warm on a hot day, I have to say, it wasn't my favourite.

In Tokyo, you can see Nagashibina around February 26th on the Sumida River in Asakusa and March 3 on the Kanda river near Nihonbashi Joggakan high school.

At any festival, you'll find my favourite species of "ojisan": the hobbyist photographer with his packed lunch, lots of equipment and many pockets. 

Hinamatsuri 雛祭り

March 3

It's "girl's day", a time to wish for the health and happiness of daughters. Not having a daughter, I don't need to display the traditional "hina ningyo" dolls, but I do happen to live near Iwatsuki, a town in Saitama, famous for handcrafted dolls. I'm not really a big fan of dolls - and some can look downright creepy with their little painted teeth and glassy eyes. But it's nice to see a tradition continue. Traditional Hina Ningyo are dressed as members of a Heian court with emperor and empress, courtiers and musicians.

If you happen to go to Iwatsuki (and who wouldn't - it's got a funky Showa-style street and a Yoshinoya!) it's worth dropping by Togyoku doll store and museum, near the station.

Grandparents usually buy elaborate dolls when a girl is born in the family, and these can be passed down through the generations, adding more courtiers until you need a whole room to display them! Japanese friends who have them say you also have to pack them away as soon as the festival is over or you'll never get married! No pressure.

But what about the food, you say? It's not a Japanese festival without food! There's shirozake - sake with a very low alcohol content, made from fermented mochi rice. It tastes like alcohol without the buzz and tasting it once was enough. Hina arare are sweet rice crisps coloured like spring. Actually, anything pink is probably appropriate! Pink, green and white are the main colours of the new season.

Not exactly hina arare, but close

Hello Kitty and Koala no Machi come to the party. And a little pink wine.

The traditional dish for hina matsuri is chirashi zushi, or 'scattered sushi'. It looks beautiful, with the colours of the new season. Since my husband isn't a fan of chirashi zushi, I took myself off to Vegetable Sushi Potager in Roppongi, for a completely vegetarian version. Almost too pretty to eat. I felt very virtuous afterwards, but had to head up to Midtown for a coffee and a chocolate brownie about an hour later.

All the colours of spring! The rice is coloured pink with beetroot, I think.

Spring is in the air

March

Finally, the days are warming up and we can say goodbye to sudden snow flurries. The crisp, sunny days are perfect for walking in the park, looking at the plum blossoms and, around my neighbourhood, crazy huge camellia trees encrusted with flowers. It's like nature's decided to have a big party. Even the cyclamen plant I bought before Christmas is having a second youth, suddenly sprouting more purple flowers.

Then, there are the delicious spring foods! I love takenoko (bamboo shoots_, but they're a fiddle to prepare, so I cheat and buy them pre-cooked at the supermarket. Mixed with nanohana (rapeseed), a slightly bitter green which has spectacular yellow flowers, you can make a delicious side dish redolent of spring. Just treat the nanohana like spinach - a quick boil for about 1 minute is enough; mix with sliced takenoko and julienned, cooked carrot for colour and sweetness. I basically made 'horenso no gomae" - spinach with sesame dressing - but with the takenoko and nanohana instead. I love the smell of toasted sesame seeds, especially when you grind them (easiest way is with a suribachi, a grooved, ceramic bowl similar to a mortar and pestle). Add some sugar, a splash of soy and sake and dress your early spring salad.

Here's what it looks like: