Golden Week in May

One of favorite month of the year should be May.
That May has "Golden week" is one reason.
May will be followed by that notorious Baiu Season (rainy seaon ) in June.

Golden Week is consist fo several public holidays as follows.
- April 29
Greenery Day, or Nature Day
- May 3
Constitution Memorial Day
- May 4
People's Day, or Citizen's Day
- May 5
Children's Day

May Day (on May 1) is not a public holiday, but is nevertheless often granted as a holiday by many companies.
The rule is, when a public holiday is on a Sunday, the next day tbecomes a holiday for that year.

Flora and fauna -April-

As usual year, April started with Japanese Cherry Blossom flowering against windy weather.
The life time of flowering of this blossom is very short, about one week or so.
This is why people here like this trees.
At the time I write this article, flowering ended, many trees are growing many leaves.
April starts with Cherry Blossom and ends with the beginning of so-called "Golden Week".

The plant of this month:
I would like the tiny plant, "Erythronium japonicdum".
This plant is also to flower at the beginning of April, does not last long.
It is not popular flower but grows at limited place like a sunny slope of hill.
You would notice that the flower petal is very unique.

The bird of this month:
It is Japanese Bush Warbler (Uguisu).
This birds will sing from April, therefore people think of this bird as a herald of springtime.
They are more often heard than seen.
Along with this uguise, great tit's singing is heard in many places.
Yes, spring has come with birds singing.
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Yellow sand

Today, Japan was widely covered with Yellow Sand from China.
This sand was carried on strong wind from China.
TV news said many cities in Japan were coated with annoying sand.

In this time of the season, this is the typical example of bad things here.
This climate phenomenon seems to become very heavy year after year.

That many woods are reportedly cut for houses, paper, etc in China is one of the reason which cause this heavy yellow sand to be worse than ever.

Erythronium japonicum

Erythronium japonicdum.
You can see this flower in a grove but only for about two or three weeks.
Only this season.
I myself took this photo.

The cherry blossom

Every year, Met Office make announcement when this pretty pink blossom of cherries will bloom.
This winter season was very warm and they forecasted it will bloom quite earlier than regular season.
But this prediction was wrong though they said it was due to a software bug of hi-tech computer program.
Anyway,cherry season begun. Many people will take a walk under those trees.
This time of the year is one of the best season in Japan.
Warm, little rain.

Flora and fauna -March-

I was asked to write Japanese flora and fauna by Jim .
From this month, therefore, I will write what I am interested in Japanese plants, birds.

March.
The plants of this month:
I chose "daphne" as the plant of this month.
In the middle of March, sweet smell of daphne begins to hang over around the outskirt of Tokyo.
You can sense that long dark season will end, warm comfortable season will start with this smell.
As you may know, the North of Japan is still cold while the south of Japan is now very warm because Japan is vertically long country.
Tokyo are, where I live, is the centre of Japan and now this smell is going around with this reason.







The birds of this month:
I would like to choose (Japanese) White-eye as the bird of this month.
The eyes are surrounded with white color and its body is tiny, greenish.
They are seen on the branch of Japanese plum trees (Ume) with many flowers.
Those birds like to suck sweets from flowers of Japanese plum trees.
People like those tiny lovely birds and sense the cold season is beginning to end.

Too windy for an umbrella

This is the debris after strong wind blew this area (Tokyo).
I clearly remember that I asked my friend why you don't use an umbrella there in stead of wearing rain-jacket when I was in UK.
At that time, I thought people in UK would NOT like them.
His answer was very clear. "too windy to use it here."

Although this type of umbrellas are very cheap to use under very bad condition (windy) in Tokyo, many people seemed to have been uneasy to use them on that day here.

Wow ! This is me with many acupuncture needles on my back !
These needles are for the therapy of stiffness in my shoulder.
Other than these points, there are many good points in human body to relax those stiffness.
Many things to learn.

Matsuri

Matsuri is a Japanese word for a festival.
This drum (Taiko) is used for that festival.

Another cicada

Here is another cicada singing this season.
I found this on a tree near the office.

The ball made from Japan Cedar

This balls are made from Japan Cedar.
At most of Japanese Sake Distllers, they hang these balls to show the process of making new sake start.
The color of balls is green but become brown at the end to imply the process end.
They hang balls but also to make a wish of success of the process.

A distiller of Japanese Sake

A friend of mine living in Scottland took me to a distiller of Scotch Whiskey.
Now in return, I want to show him a distiller of Japanese Sake.

Tsuruga castle in Aizu Prefecture

This castle was destroyed at the battle between conservative and radical of Edo Regime.
Though re-built, no more samurais but only the spirit was remained there.

Bandai San in Fukushima Prefecture

This photo was taken near lake Inawashiro.

Mirror

At every corners on the roads in Japan, there are this kind of mirrors ,which are very convenient for drivers as well as pedestrians.
T shape junctions are very dangerous and tend to cause many accidents.
Although this is very useful, I had not seen even one tiny mirros in UK.

Rush hour

Would you like to see real RUSH HOUR ?
Here is one at a station in TOKYO.
This is the scene at near the ticket gate.
Trains are more packed than this.
Come and enjoy the life !

World PC Expo

At World PC Expo held in TOKYO, there were many charming women like this, working busily, attracting many business men.

What this woman was showing was demo CD of a game.
Behind her were PC chassis, LCD, etc.

This is typical scene at exhibitions here.
It is good to see but sometimes it can be embarrassment.

Gift from a friend living in Highland

When I tried to drink a single molt whiskey in UK, my colleague advised me not to drink this mixing with water and this whiskey.
Although this drinking style (mixing whiskey with water) is popular in Japan, you could lose good flavor of good whiskey by doing so.

This whiskey of photo is the gift from my friend living in Highland.
Should I drink this Japanese way or not ?

The sign of autumn

The dragonflies with red tail are the sign of autumn in Japan.
After cicadas, you can see this insects flying in a grass field.

Buddha in Kamakura

Kamakura is the city located in an hour train trip from Tokyo.
This big buddha made of bronze is in this city.
The height is 12.38m, made in 1243.
Then current, this buddha was made of woods.
Strong wind, several typhoons destroyed this budda since then.
Now rebuilt in 1495, sitting like photo.