The difference between the beginning and end of April is quite marked. If you went to one of the cherry blossom parties at the beginning of the month, you needed to wrap up as the wind was bitter, and there was snow on the ground the morning of the school fair. But by the end of the month, its t-shirt and shorts, wildflowers in the forest and summer migrant birds returning.


We visited Kawasaki for the Kanamara fesival, there's photographs and video here and the full legend is here. It was very funny.

Half way through the month, my Shuko-kai (woodwork) group went bamboo hunting. Takenoko (bamboo children) is regarded as a spring delicacy. One walks through a bamboo grove feeling for bamboo shoots with one's feet, or looking for emerging shoots, then dig out around and snap the shoot up, hopefully without damaging it. The biggest was about 30 inches long, most of mine less than six - Atsushi very kindly said that the smaller ones are "totemo oishi desu" the most delicious. Some were barbecued for lunch, wrapped up in foil and baked in the ashes, and the remainder taken home and shared.
We visited a the Sankeien gardens in Yokohama. The gardens were developed by wealthy silk merchant in the 1880s. The area is now well wooded, hard to believe that one of the worlds major ports is just across the hill. Also contains collection of older buildings moved onto site. Must have been some sort of celebration or event; the garden was full of middle aged men and women in formal kimonos.
We had lunch at one of the garden cafes, then explored the Yokohama water front, and the the silk museum. Fascinating,hadn't realized the detail of the process, though again I wonder about the health and welfare of many of the workers; Sankien garden might have been the tranquil home of a wealthy and cultured silk merchant, but life expectancy for his workers looked to about 40.
The spring flowers have been wonderful, very colorful. New Zealand doesn't really have a spring as such, and certainly our wild flowers aren't as showy. I suspect something to do with the lack of daytime insect pollinators, not much point in putting a lot of effort into extravagant colored blooms if you are pollinated by night flying gnat.
Tom has a internship at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia for a year, and will be visiting at the end of the month so he'll get to see some of the gardens. Joe is at a conference in Vancouver and will be here in June. Just in time for summer.
More photos here and yet more in the Picasa links here