Inuyama Redux

About a month ago, I blogged about my visit to Inuyama (The Secret of Monkey Island). Well, recently I went back to see the Inuyama Spring Festival.

One of the oldest festivals in Japan, it first took place in 1635 as a festival of the Haritsuna shrine and quickly became an annual event. Held on the first weekend in April, it sees thirteen three-tiered floats, each twenty-five feet high, parade around the city accompanied by the sounds of flutes and drums. At night, each float is lit up by 365 lanterns. Combine this with the fact that the festival usually coincides with the height of the cherry blossom season and you have a truly amazing sight. 

People come from miles around to attend the festival. Roads are closed to traffic and there is a real party atmosphere as people follow the parade. Live music is played and food stalls line both sides of the street, selling squid, takoyaki, chocolate bananas, okonomiyaki, toffee apples, fried chicken, taiyaki, cucumber on a stick... the list goes on and on. Oh, and there's beer too for those who are interested in such things.

Enjoy the pictures...

Sakura

Spring is a magical time in Japan for a number of reasons, but chief among them is the arrival of the cherry blossoms (sakura). Depending on where you are in Japan, the blossoms will most likely arrive between late-March and mid-April, though Okinawa can see them as early as January and in Hokkaido they have to wait until May. Japan's Meteorological Agency tracks the cherry blossom front (sakura zensen) as it spreads across Japan and its advance is reported by major news agencies. (And not just in Japan. Last year, I noticed even BBC News in the UK reporting on the spread of cherry blossoms across Japan.)

You have to be quick if you want to see the blossoms, though, since they only bloom for a week or so. As I type this, the cherry blossoms in my area have fallen like snow with only a few determined stragglers still clinging to the branches.

Cherry blossoms are ephemeral. They shine brightly, but die so very quickly, in a way that seems to symbolise our own mortality. In the eighteenth century, Japanese writer Motoori Norinaga coined the term "mono no aware" (an empathy towards things) to describe an awareness of the impermanence of all things and the gentle sadness felt towards their passing and towards the realities of life. The cherry blossom is a symbol of Japan and can be found in music and art both ancient and modern.

Hanami is the Japanese tradition of flower viewing. It can be as simple as a stroll through a park, but it often involves a picnic or barbecue party under the blossoming cherry trees. Since the best picnic spots are heavily fought over, it is not uncommon places to be reserved long before the party begins. A picnic sheet is spread in the early morning and someone is left to stand guard over it all day until the rest of the group arrive after work.

As well as being beautiful, cherry blossoms are also edible and are used as ingredients in many Japanese recipes (especially sweets).

(Photos taken in Toyohashi Park and Mukaiyama Park in Toyohashi.)

City of Music

(Sorry, this should have been posted two weeks ago, but stuff happened.)

The city of Hamamatsu is a half-hour train ride from Toyohashi. The musical instrument industry flourishes in Hamamatsu, to the extent that the city has a monopoly on the production of pianos in Japan. In front of the station stands the Act Tower, a 45 storey skyscraper designed to resemble a harmonica.

Possibly the most famous building in Hamamatsu is Hamamatsu Castle, built by Tokugawa Ieyasu during the sixteenth century and it was where Ieyasu lived for seventeen years. One of the most famous shoguns in Japanese history, Ieyasu seized power following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and so ushered in more than two and a half centuries of rule by the Tokugawa shogunate (a time also known as the Edo Period). A fictionalised account of Ieyasu's rise to power can be found in James Clavell's novel Shogun.

In addition to castles and music, Hamamatsu is also famous for its eels (unagi), with a history of over one hundred years of eel cultivation, and eel restaurants are everywhere. The recommended omiyage or souvenir from Hamamatsu is unagi pai (eel pie) which is a type of cake or cookie made with eel bones. It is delicious. 

Two Month Anniversary

I arrived in Japan exactly two months ago today. How time flies.

I feel I should mark this event in some way, but I'm all out of fireworks so you'll just have to settle for this picture of cherry blossoms by night.

Regular blog posts will resume soon.