It’s rainy season now in Japan. The typical flower of the rainy season is hydrangea, which is planted in many parks and gardens all over the country. Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) is common indigenous shrub in Japan. Now, many horticultural varieties have been developed. … Read more →
It is early summer now in Japan. Rice seedlings are being planted in paddy fields. We shall soon have a rainy season for one month and half. End Read more →
Japan’s climate differs from region to region. While it’s snowing in the northern region, the spring herald has appeared in the south already. Webmaster visited Kawazu Town last week which is famous for Kawazu-zakura. Kawazu-zakura is an early blossom variety of cherry which starts blooming about a month earlier than common cherry. Access: Tokyo (shinkansen 0:46) Atami… Read more →
Chrysanthemum is one of popular horticultural flowers in Japan. Many varieties have been developed in the history. Even today, many chrysanthemum lovers grow it and exhibitions are held in many places this time. Webmaster visited Odawara Castle this week for one of the exhibitions. Access: Tokyo (shinkansen 0:37) Odawara (walk 0:10) @ It was fine today… Read more →
Red spider lily (Lycoris radiate, Higanbana) is flowering. A longhorn beetle staying on the flower Red spider lily and pampas grass Red spider lily with rice crop Now it’s time for harvest. Rice paddy field after harvesting. Now we are in autumn. End. Read more →
Now rice plant is ripening. It’s still greenish, but will become golden yellow soon. A scarecrow in the rice field called “kakashi” in Japanese Flowering red spider lily (Lycoris radiate, Higanbana), which is one of important members of autumn’s landscape in the countryside. The season of new rice is coming! End. Read more →
If you are traveling in Japan now, you must hear the sound of cicadas. Is that noisy for you? The sound is just one of back ground music in summer for Japanese, though. There are about thirty species of cicadas in Japan, among which fourteen are found in the main land except Southwestern islands. The commonest is Large… Read more →
Chestnuts are now maturing. Have you ever seen the burrs of chestnut? If you come from Europe, North America, Korea, and China, probably “yes”. If you come from Southern countries, probably “no”. In fact, chestnuts are widely distributed in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. Our chestnut (Castanea crenata) is an indigenous tree in Japan and also… Read more →
Webmaster visited Ibaraki Prefecture, north to Tokyo, last week. And he found Japanese Helwingia (hanaikada, Helwingia japonica) shrubs are bearing fruits. As shown in the previous blog (2017-05-18) , hanaikada is an indigenous shrub in Japan which has flowers on its leaves. Consequently, they have fruits on their leaves. Doesn’t it look curious? When… Read more →
Now, Japanese iris (Hanashobu, Iris ensata var. ensata) is now flowering in many gardens. Webmaster visited Sagamihara Park (Sagamihara-koen) this week which has an iris garden. Access: Tokyo (local train 0:14) Shinjuku (local train 0:32) Sagami-ono (bus 0:20) Sagamiharakoen-mae @ When Webmaster visited the garden in April, iris was still small. But,… Read more →