Seasonal Items for traditional Boys’ Festival Day

Today, May 5th is Boys’ Festival Day which is one of the traditional seasonal events in Japan. Families with little boys would display a Samurai armor, a traditional doll of a great man, or carp shaped wind streamers at home to ensure their sons' good future.

Also there is a seasonal sweet for this day, and it is one kind of rice cakes called Kashiwa-mochi. Kashiwa means a name of a Japanese oak tree, the sweet is wrapped by an oak leaf, so it is called Kashiwa-mochi(Oak-rice-cake). The Difference from the cherry blossoms rice cake is that people don’t eat the oak leaf. The oak leaf has the meaning of wishing for prosperity.

Moreover, traditionally people take a bath scented with one kind of Japanese iris leaves. Since old times it has been said that the plant can get rid of evil thing, so people soak this leaves in their bath and pray for their health. Once a year, only for this day Japanese supermarkets sell the iris leaves like the one in the photos.

A Photo of A View of The Japanese Minami-Alps(South-Alps) Mountains

The title might sound strange but actually some mountain ranges called “Alps” exist in Japan although of course those are not the original names. 

The views of the mountain ranges remind Japanese of the mountains of the Alps in Europe, so the name “Alps” is known commonly for those. There are three of them, which are “The Minami-Alps(South-Alps) Mountains”, “The Chuo-Alps(Central-Alps) Mountains”, and “The Kita-Alps(North-Alps) Mountains”.

This photo is a view of the Minami-Alps(South-Alps) Mountains which is stretched over the border of Nagano prefecture and Yamanashi prefecture. The formal name of it is “The Akaisi Mountains”, but a national park include the area was named “the Minami-Alps National Park” officially in 1964, and a city in that area changed the name and became “Minami-Alps City” in 2002, though it sounds a little bit strange to have the word “Alps” in a name of a Japanese city.

Do you think those mountains looks similar to the Alps in Europe, too?

A View Of Sunset With Sakura-color in Sakura season

It was a misty day yesterday, and somehow the sunset became Sakura(cherry blossoms)-color as if the cloud is reflecting the full blooming Sakura flowers on the ground.

I didn not make up the word "Sakura-color" , Japanese use the word “Sakura-Iro(Sakura color)” when they want to express delicate light pink color. 

On the other hand, the direct translation of pink color in Japanese is “Peach color(Momo-Iro)” because peach flowers have stronger pink.

However, nowadays people use the English-Japanese conbination “Pink-Iro(pink color)” more commonly. People still use “Sakura-Iro” but seldom use “Momo-Iro”, and “Pink-Iro” became a Japanese word.

Japanese Sakura(Cherry Blossoms)Front Forecasts

Finally, cherry blossoms started to bloom in Tokyo area! 

Japanese people are checking it and report it from really early stage like the photo on the left, and people keep talking “now it’s 10% blooming(Ichibu-zaki)”, “now it’s 30% blooming(Sanbu-zaki)”…until the full blooming(Mankai) or even later.

It’s not only for a small talk, Japanese weather forecasts are officially reporting and forecasting the Sakura blooming every year as in the two photos on the right.

As you can see Japanese islands extend vertically, cherry blossoms start to bloom from the south region to the north gradually (it takes time and people even can travel with it), so people call it “The Cherry Blossom Front(Sakura Zensen)” as if it is one of the weather phenomena.

According to the “Sakura Forecast” on March 26th, it will come into full bloom in Tokyo area on March 31st this year.

Photos of Comparison Between A View With Spring Haze And A View During Winter

Today, I saw “spring haze(Haru Gasumi in Japanese)” phenomenon which I introduced on my another blog .
Both pictures show the same location from the same angle, and weather is clear on each picture.

Spring haze is not a result of any pollution, it is just a phenomenon of increasing water vapor in the air. During the winter the air tends to be very dry, but the spring brings higher humidity as the temperature goes up. These climate changes cause a hazy view, a common phenomenon in every spring.

Therefore the expression “Spring Haze (Haru Gasumi)” has been one of the common seasonal expression in Japan and it is often used in traditional Japanese short poetry(Haiku and Tanka) since the expression can bring graceful spring atmosphere into the poetry.

A View of Mt.Fuji With Daytime Moon, in March

I like to post photos of Mt.Fuji because it is really a special mountain for Japanese people and not only because it is the highest mountain in Japan.

The origin of the name "Mt. Fuji" is said to be "There will never be another mountain like this.", and since Japanese Shinto is based on nature worship, this beautiful mountain has been a major spiritual spot for Japanese people from ancient times. 

Whenever people can see Mt Fuji, most of them feel a bit happy like they somehow got lucky. Some people are even seriously researching about "How far Mt.Fuji can be seen from a distance in Japan" and according to one report the furthest place which is confirmed by a photo is 201miles (322km) away. Since Mt. Fuji is a completely isolate mountain, in fact it can be seen from so many places in Japan.

By the way, the word in the title "daytime moon" is kind of a direct translation of the Japanese word "Hiru-no-tsuki" and I know it's not a common expression in English. That Japanese word actually has another meaning (& not such a good one), "daytime moon" is also a term used for a person who people never notice his/her presence, in other words, it means a nonperson.

However, with Mt. Fuji, I think the daytime moon looks very nice and noticeable.