Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Sanja Matsuri


The other day, I went with a couple friends to the Sanja festival (or, matsuri) in Asakusa. It’s one of the three largest festivals in Tokyo, with (depending on the source) somewhere between hundreds of thousands and two million people attending. During this festival, people from the neighborhoods carry nearly a hundred mikashi - portable shrines carrying Shinto gods - throughout the neighborhoods of Asakusa to bless the businesses and residents.




The mikashi often appeared to be proceeded by people playing taiko and flutes.


Sometimes it was just adorable small children playing taiko.

They were followed by a man carrying a big banner like this one.




And then there were the dozens of mikashi. 


Some mikashi were carried by women only.

And some – hopefully the more durable ones – were carried by children.



They parade all over, occasionally giving the mikashi a “vehement” jolt in order to intensify the power of the shrine, and then eventually head through the gates and back to the Asakusa Shrine.




In the vicinity of the Sensoji Temple and Asakusa Shrine are festival booths with all sorts of food.  There’s hard candy coated fruit (at the Hello Kitty booth) and cotton candy packaged in bags with cartoon/anime figures on them. 


And bananas dipped in chocolate and decorated with sprinkles and such.



And of course octopus and other savory/meat items.




We also ran across a couple lions at the festival.  I can’t find it now, but I think I read somewhere that it’s supposed to bring long life if they snap at your face. 




Saturday, May 11, 2013

Wisteria!

Last weekend, I took advantage of the final days of Golden Week by taking the train to visit Ashikaga Flower Park.  The park is considered to be one of the best place to see wisteria in all of Japan.  Tochigi Prefecture designated the park a National Treasure.  It was gorgeous!


Among it's several large wisteria trees, it has a 145 year old wisteria trellis the size of 600 tatami mats, which is about 1000 square meters.  There are more than 350 wisteria trees in the park.  When we were there, the light pink wisteria was on it's way out, and the yellow wisteria was just coming in, but the purple, large, double-petaled, and white wisteria were in full bloom.  There were screens of wisteria, tunnels of wisteria, a bridge covered in wisteria...   



There are also about 1,500 100-year old azalea bushes. 




And then there were the clematis.




And "Monet's Pond".





The park is designed to have 8 flower seasons, including water lilies in the summer and everything all lit up in December and January, so I really need to go back!





A couple days ago, I heard that the head gardener is a woman, which I guess is pretty unusual here, and a Japanese news program recently did a piece on her.  From what I saw, she does an amazing job!



Saturday, May 4, 2013

Tokyo gardens


Happy Golden Week! This week, Japan has 3 (or 4) holidays within 8 days, which we all appreciate very much. 

Boys Day windsocks at Tokyo Tower
Last Monday was Showa Day, celebrating the birthday of the previous Emperor. Yesterday was Constitution Memorial Day. According to the internet, today is Greenery Day, which I wasn’t really aware of since it didn’t result in a day off work. And tomorrow (observed on Monday) is Children’s Day – aka Boy’s Day, because they only celebrate boys on that day. (There’s another day where they celebrate girls.) I can't remember why, but the fish windsocks are a symbol of Boys Day in Japan. They've been out for a few weeks now. 

Because of all of these holidays, a lot of Japanese travel during this week. Since I don’t like hanging at airports or on the roads with tons and tons of people, I’m sticking close to home.

Last weekend, I went to Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. The garden is right next to the Tokyo Dome and dates back to 1629. It’s been designated as an important historical asset and site of special historical significance. 







There’s a large central pond with a turtle-shaped island in the middle, symbolizing longevity. 







The park is a beautiful oasis in the middle of the city. A lot of it was done in a Chinese style.  





Because the flowers were all early this year, it was towards the end of a lot of the flowers. I certainly need to get back in the fall and next spring.









There are tons of azalea bushes, cherry trees, iris plots, some wisteria trellises, plus koi and ducks and turtles swimming in ponds. A lot of birdwatchers were lined up with huge telephoto lenses to take pictures of birds out on the island. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. 

  



Yesterday, a friend and I tried to go to a French and Spanish classical music festival, but despite the fact that there were tons of concerts in a number of large venues, they were almost entirely sold out. Next year, we’ll buy tickets in advance! 

So we walked to Hibiya Park instead. I went to a small section of the park once before, but it was before all of the flowers came out. This time, I walked all over the park, and saw tons of pretty flowers and greenery.




Life imitated art with the bird near the fountain.




And while looking at all of the turtles on a small island, we saw a cat walking very carefully along the stone wall.



I am certainly enjoying Spring and the many gardens in Tokyo!