Holidays are golden

Golden Week

Golden week is a series of public holidays at the end of April – early May. With the weekends, you only need take a day or two off work to get a 10 day holiday. The weather is usually lovely: warm but not yet humid (except this year, we had freakish storms), and for everyone who started a new job or school in April, it’s prefect timing to get a little breathing space. You see, it truly is a golden week.

The main holiday is children’s day or “kodomo no hi” on May 5th. Originally it was ‘boy’s day’, but it was renamed in 1948 to be more inclusive. However, the main focus is still boys: families with sons display replica samurai helmets or dolls, or other figures of strength like Kintaro, in the hope that their sons will grow up strong and healthy. It’s very similar to the girls’ doll festival in some ways.

This is our "Kintaro" doing a sumo pose, while his bear friend flies the carp flags.

There’s an amazing doll shop near Asakusabashi station in East Tokyo, which displays all the traditional warrior dolls, but this year they also had “Darth Vader” and “Storm Trouper” heads; a nice reference to the way the Star Wars costumes referenced samurai armour.

The glass was too reflective, but you can just see the Storm Trouper, for about $1,800

This is the traditional style with helmet, sword, arrows and irises

Japanese Irises - “Hanashoubu”  - are just coming into season and often feature in displays, thanks to their straight, sword-like leaves and proud purple flowers. The Japanese word “shoubu” also sounds like “victory”. Some people put the leaves in the bath, to hopefully make their kids strong and ward off bad luck.

It's too early for the spectacular iris displays in parks like Horikiri Shoubuen, but you'll find random clumps of irises growing around the neighbourhood.

One of my favourite things about Golden Week is seeing all the carp streamers. Families put up “koinobori” or carp streamers, which symbolise the energy and strength of carp swimming and jumping upstream, overcoming any obstacle. Usually there’s a large black carp for Dad, then a red one for Mum, followed by smaller ones for the kids, in order of age. We went up to Tatebayashi in Gunma to see the famous koinobori strung across the river. There are over 5,000 carp streamers! If you time it right and go in early April, you can see the carp and the cherry blossoms together.

These koinobori were set up as tunnels for kids to play in

The spectacular carp streamers flying over the river in Tatebayashi

These are sembei- rice crackers - wrapped up like koinobori, with a plastic iris.

The traditional treat for Children’s Day is kashiwa mochi – mochi sweets wrapped in oak leaves. The story is that oak trees don’ t drop their old leaves until new leaves appear, symbolising the strength and continuity of the family. Anyway, kashiwa mochi is delicious! It comes filled with sweet bean paste or a mix of bean paste and miso. You shouldn’t eat the oak leaf, but you can enjoy the imprint it leaves on the soft mochi. One of these days I’m going to try to make some mochi sweets. We have a few kilos of mochi rice here, thanks to our relatives up in Tochigi who send us a couple of big bags of rice every year (though they stopped sending them last year due to radiation concerns; we got local tofu and yuba instead). I almost cooked the mochi rice by accident once, which would have made a gloopy mess of my curry! 

Kashiwa mochi wrapped in fresh oak leaves. They smell sweet and "green".

Inside: this one is a mix of miso and white bean paste.

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.