Higanbana 彼岸花

October

Finally, last week I got to see the amazing red flowers, "higanbana" out at Kinchakuda, a park in Hidaka, Saitama. I'd been worried that the flowers would be decimated by several typhoons that came roaring up the coast last week, but they were still going strong. In fact, there were a lot of new buds, so I think the flowers will still look amazing this week.

Getting there is a bit of a chore. It really is easiest to go via the Seibu Ikebukuro line from Ikebukuro. Although I live in Saitama, it took several changes to finally get to Koma, the station nearest the park. I didn't need to worry about directions. There was a booth outside the station, decked out in red (higanbana red is "the" colour of Hidaka city), with free maps. But I just followed the genki oldies with their cameras. I swear, the over-60 crowd are singularly responsible for the continued welfare of Canon. The amount of expensive gear was amazing. About 85% of the crowd were probably retired, but there was a strange subset of Akihabara types - a few cosplayers, some gothic-cute kids and a guy taking pro-style shots of his doll. When I googled higanbana-themed animations, it seems "Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni", with ghosts and a lot of higanbana imagery, is very popular. But I could be wrong. Given the flower's association with graves (it blooms around "higan", when you visit ancestor's graves, so it often grows around graves) and tales of star crossed lovers, it really is quite a "goth" flower. And it's red. And it looks a bit like a spider.

It's an easy stroll from the station, and the route through little back lanes is lined with local stalls, selling home made jams, plants, chestnuts and branches of bright red things which I found out were "red eggplants". I didn't believe it at first, since they look like a tomato crossed with a chilli. But Google says they're real. I decided to leave the stalls till my return to the station, not wanting to carry an armload of autumn produce all over the park.

Red eggplants for sale.

Just follow the crowds

One of the local stalls

These handy markers show you the way

The approach to the park, through veggie patches.

Scarecrows guarding the rice

The air was heavy with the scent of kinmokusei (sweet osmanthus) which I love - it's a tiny orange flower, so well hidden in its trees and shrubs that you smell it but can't see it. It has a lovely sweet, sharp smell, not unlike freesia or daphne. Unfortunately, it was popular in the 80's as a toilet spray fragrance, so for a lot of Japanese of a certain age, it has those associations. I have the same feeling about hyacinths - a gorgeous flower with a really fresh, springtime scent, but when I was a kid, it was a popular, cheap smell in public toilets. I just can't wear the fragrance or smell the flowers without thinking "hmm... toilet".

This is a huge kinmokusei 'tree'. Intoxicating.

The higanbana at Kinchakuda are like a red carpet under the trees, next to a river. People were enjoying picnics, painting, taking thousands of photos and - this being Japan - shopping! There was a rest area with food stalls and local craft stalls. I got sucked in to buying some local sake, after trying a few. oops.

Way too many photos of flowers coming up...

Painting by the river

Hello dolly

Cosplayer

The sake shop.

On my way back to the station, I strolled through the cosmos field. It was lovely and wild. Cosmos tends to just range across the ground like a beautiful weed. People were gathering armfuls while red dragonflies darted around overhead. Perhaps it was all the flowers, or the unseasonably warm, yet comfortable weather, but everyone was in such a good mood. I completely forgot the hassle of getting there, and it felt a million miles from the concrete and crowds of Tokyo. Japanese friends often talk about the need for "green therapy" - getting out into the trees to refresh their senses. I think I understand, now.

Cosmos

Blending in

Kinchakuda costs a measly 200 yen (but if you're really cheap, you can look over the fence for free. The cosmos field is also free). The easiest way to get there is from Ikebukuro Station. Take the Seibu Ikebukuro express to Hanno station and change to a local train to Koma (you want to be going in the direction of Chichibu). It costs 510 yen each way and takes an hour. I went via Kawagoe and finished the afternoon with a stroll through the Kawagoe "koedo" historic area.

I was cajoled into buying an "autumn basket" from one of the local ladies, filled with cute little corn, a marrow of some kind, a chestnut still in its spiky cover, those red eggplants and some red chillies. She also threw in a few higanbana so, not a bad deal, really.

otsukimi お月見

September 30

So, Sunday night was supposed to be "tsukimi", or moon viewing - essentially a harvest festival, when people enjoy the full moon and give thanks for a good harvest. Being a moon viewing, round things are very popular. One of the traditional offerings is a pile of 15 shiratama: little white mochi balls. On the old lunar calendar, the night is called "juugo ya" or 15th (it was August 15th on the old calendar), hence the 15 balls, I guess. Sweet potatoes, round fruits like nashi and persimmon and moon cakes are also popular offerings (of course, you can eat everything after you've "offered" them to the gods).

Sweet potatoes, boiled and dressed with a little lemon juice and sugar.

I tried to make "moons" from pickled turnip, "kabu". The orange things are carrot "ginko leaves".

I decided to make shiratama with our dinner, which was much easier than I expected. You can buy shiratama flour, which is made from mochi rice and maybe some cornstarch or similar. Add enough water to make something resembling bead dough, roll little balls (quickly, and with dry hands, or you'll get a sticky mess), then drop them into boiling water. When they float to the surface after a minute or so, they're done. Drop them into icy cold water to firm them up, and keep them in the water until you're ready to use them. I made shiruko, a good wintery dessert. It's a kind of sweet red bean soup. I didn't have time for soaking azuki beans overnight, so I bought a can of readymade, sweetened beans, added a little water and a pinch of salt and heated them. When you're ready to eat, you just drop a few shiratama into the soup. The beans are quite sweet and the shiratama are bland and a little chewy, and somehow the combination works really well. If you put three shiratama on a wooden skewer and cover them in sticky, sweet soy, you'll have traditional dango.

Drop the balls into boiling water. 

Add them to your shiruko.

The rest of our dinner was very simple. I had some tuna which had been simmered in soy sauce to use as a rice topping and I made a small dish of namerou - a fish version of steak tartare. You need finely chopped raw fish (aji (horse mackerel) is good, but I used iwashi -(sardine)), mixed with a little miso paste, grated ginger, finely chopped shallot, some finely shredded shiso leaves and a little squeeze of lemon juice. It's sooo delicious! I heard it was traditionally made by fisherman around the coast of Chiba, and it's called namerou - from nameru - to lick - because you'll want to lick your plate clean! No pictures, because we ate it before I remembered to take a photo. It's THAT good!

Ok, so back to the moon. The classic view of the full moon in autumn is through susuki, or pampas grass. It's a popular decoration for tsukimi and the supermarket had nice arrangements of susuki with yellow pom pom-shaped flowers, which I guess were dahlias. You often see round dahlias (denjikubotan) used in very traditional Japanese arrangements (they're often mimicked in hair decorations); they have such impact. So did I buy these gorgeous flowers? No; I was hurrying home with my groceries before the typhoon hit.

This is what I wanted to buy / make. Maybe next time! Courtesy of Kanko Flower School, in Osaka.

The cute label from our moon cakes.

A rabbit shaped moon cake, with sake.

And so, visually, this month's tsukimi was a wash out, literally. Around 7pm, the typhoon hit Tokyo, and the howling winds and hard, horizontal rain made seeing the moon impossible.  We did toast the moon with some sake and very cute moon cakes, in the shape of rabbits. Why rabbits? Chinese and Japanese legends say a rabbit lives on the moon, pounding mochi in Japan or pounding herbs to make medicine in China. You'll find a lot of traditional fabric prints and plates decorated with rabbits, transfixed by the full moon.

These lovely hair pins are from kazurasei.co.jp

You can get a lot of furashiki cloths like this at shops like Loft; use them for decoration or to wrap your bento.

Monday was incredibly hot, as it usually is after a typhoon, but all the clouds had been blown away, so we could see a just-past-full moon last night. Next month, there's another full moon, called "Jusan ya", so we have another chance to drink under the moon beams.

I cheated - this is a shot from last night, after the typhoon.

Autumn 秋

     

At last, Autumn is here! I’ve been humming Etta James since last Saturday, when the temperature suddenly plunged from mid-30s every day, to 21C. My Japanese teacher told me an old saying, [暑さ寒さも彼岸まで」atsusa samusa mo higan made or "neither heat nor cold lasts past higan (autumn equinox)." I kind of doubted her, given the weeks of relentless heat, but sure enough, right on shuubun no hi, or autumn equinox (Sept 22nd), autumn came with a bang. Of course, the signs of the new season have been around for a few weeks – beer and chuhai cans are now dressed in their autumn colours and the supermarket is decked out in plastic maple and ginko leaves. Chestnuts, pumpkins and sweet potatoes are in EVERYTHING! Growing up in Sydney, we didn't have much in the way of specific autumn dishes, so it always feels exciting when autumn arrives in Japan. 

Kuri kanoko, a kind of chestnut jam sweet

Montblanc - my favourite! This is a very fancy version, at Mitsukoshi

Sweet potato danish with black sesame seeds - not too sweet. 

Autumn "limited" drinks are here.

Sweet potato chips!

It’s the perfect weather for walking, and the shops are full of delicious autumn produce like sanma, aki aji, sato imo, nashi and very expensive matsutake mushrooms. Autumn is short, so we’ve got to get out there and make the most of it before winter sets in.

Just over a week ago, I saw my first “akatombo”, or red dragonfly, of the season, our persimmons are getting a little colour (hope I can get some before the birds do, this year!) and random berries, pomegranates and “higanbana”, red spiderlilies are popping up around the neighbourhood. Last week was “ohigan”, or autumn equinox, and these gorgeous red flowers appear right at this time – hence the name. 

It kindly stopped for a photo

Raspberries? 

The persimmons are coming along well

Pomegranate kids.

Higanbana

A lovely autumn kimono and obi combination

We should visit our ancestor’s graves again at ohigan. The traditional sweet is “ohagi”, named after the hagi, bush clover flower. They’re delicious and pretty easy to make. You cook up some mochi rice, the same way you’d cook normal rice, then mush it up a bit, and roll it into egg shapes. Cover it in a layer of anko - bean paste or kinako – soy bean flower. I can’t handle a whole lot of bean paste as it’s very sweet, but as a thin layer over rice, it’s quite tasty.

Ohagi. I think the kinako one tastes best.

Halloween seems to get more popular every year. Our local bakery went a little overboard this year!

This Sunday is Juugoya (15^th August on the old calendar), otherwise known as “otsukimi” – moon viewing. A lot of cake shops are selling dango and moon cakes and you can make offerings of round, ‘moon shaped’ things. It’s a kind of harvest festival, and like many seasonal festivals, it originally came from China. I’m going to try making the traditional 15 shiratama dumplings. The fashionable cake shops are pushing white macarons this year for Otsukimi. Sounds good! If you miss it, don’t worry, there’s another full moon festival in late October, called Juusanya.

Next week, I’m planning to go look for higanbana, inspired by Rurousha’s excellent post from last autumn. Check it out, here: Kinchakuda by Rurousha

Keirou no Hi 敬老の日

Monday September 17

Today’s TV shows are full of stories about genki oldies, as we celebrate “Keiro no Hi” or “Respect for the aged day”, with a public holiday. This week is also known as “silver week” – since we have 2 public holidays, so it’s like a mini Golden Week (unfortunately, the other holiday, Shuubun no Hi or Autumnal Equinox, is on Saturday). Silver is also the nice way to refer to seniors here, so we have the "silver" seats on trains and buses. 

On Saturday, we had various local do-gooders come to the house with gifts, and even cash for my MIL, who turned 75 this year. We had no idea, but apparently, you get special presents at 75! Actually the traditional auspicious birthdays are 60, “kanreki”, when you’ve completed the full cycle of the Chinese zodiac system. You wear red for good luck (babies also wear red, so it’s like you’re born again). If you visit Sugamo, the “Harajuku for oldies” in Northern Tokyo, you’ll find shops selling big, bright red pants and vests. 70 “koki”, has the kanji for rare, as it used to be rare to live that long; 77 “kiju” means joy, 88 “beiju” is like rice, or wealth. My MIL’s older sister is very genki, which she attributes to lots of green tea, swimming once a week, and playing mahjong (and she never turns down a drink).

Get your red pants here!

Old guys, or “ojisan” are looked at kind of fondly. Any man over 40 can be considered an ojisan, though the stylish ones are called “kakkoi oyaji”, or cool old dude. They read magazines like Oceans and Leon, and often mimic Italian style, with big, flicky hair, sun tans and loafers without socks. 

For cool "old" guys

My favourite ojisan are the camera enthusiasts who turn up to every festival dressed for a 3 – day hike or a tour of a war zone: backpacks, multi-pocket vests with webbing, canvas sunhats, packed lunch, green tea in an insulated pouch, etc. Illustrator Rumi Nakamura spent the last 5 years observing and interviewing “old guys” and has produced “Ojisan Zukan”, an illustrated encyclopaedia of old blokes. It’s got all the archetypes, from sad ones who sleep on the train, guys who drink canned whisky highball in front of the station, arty guys with colourful shirts, and so on. Give it to your Dad next Father’s Day!

Arty old guys

Slightly rough, 'run down'? old guys

There's also a cool sticker set!