2015 A year of Matsuri-ies: A festival for every flower

Yogoshiyama Orchid Festival

In March, I took a day trip with a couple of girlfriends to a town called Hiranai, which is about an hour northwest of Misawa (30ish miles by car). In Hiranai Town, there is a place called Mt. Yogoshi Forest Park where they have several greenhouses that house different varieties of flowers including: cacti, begonias, and orchids. In March, they have a festival to celebrate the orchids; I believe this year was the 27th annual. We made the drive out to look at the flowers early in the day. Afterward, we drove to Shichinohe town, stopped at a convenience store to grab some food for lunch (yes, convenience stores in Japan have an excellent variety of food options), and went on to Kaneko Farm for a picnic and gelato from Namiki. There was still snow on the ground, but we had gorgeous, sunny (warmish if I remember correctly) weather and a lot of fun!

Bean and the girls.

Squishy Bean.

She has never been afraid to get her hands dirty. I hope she stays that way. 

Pups at play. 

Karumai Tulip Festival 

Karumai is a town about 30 miles south of Misawa (45 minute drive). In this town, there is a beautiful park, which features a very large windmill. In the month of May, the fields surrounding the windmill bloom with over 40 varieties of tulips of all colors of the rainbow. Between the windmill and the tulips it feels a lot more like being in Holland than Japan.

Bean, Sarah, and I took a trip to see the tulips and it ended up being quite a memorable day, but not for the best reasons. We went during a nasty virus outbreak at Misawa AB that pretty much swept my entire group of friends. Bean and I had already been sick and recovered, but Sarah (unfortunately) came down with the funk that very day...while we were at the festival. She was a trooper, but felt pretty terrible. This day also happened to be the first time in the history of Japan where we could not find a Lawson's when we needed one. You may have to live here to understand why that is so shocking; it seems like, on average, there are at least two every three blocks.

Despite the unanticipated excitement, I am still glad we went to see the tulips. Sarah may say otherwise, but knowing her, I kind of doubt it.  

Hard to believe she felt as terrible as she did! 

Yokohama Nanohana

One hour (36 miles) northwest from Misawa on Mustu Bay sits little Yokohama, a town that around these here parts (meaning among the Americans) is mostly famous for tofu donuts...oh, and its Nanohana fields in May. Nanohana (or rapeseed or canola) grows in abundance in Japan in May. In Yokohama they have a festival to celebrate it. Sarah, Eric, the Bean, and I decided to travel to Yokohama before the festival officially started to check out the flowers. We opted to see them without the crowds at the sacrifice of not being able to partake in festival foods. We made up for our lack of yakisoba and takoyaki grease by making a stop for tofu donuts. I have been DYING to try these things and had made several previous attempts to do so. On this particular day, we were finally successful. Oh my goodness are they good. Now I can't pass the shop without stopping...but it is tofu so I am pretty sure it is a health food. 

I don't have much to say about Nanohana except that they are really, really ridiculously good looking (and kind of stinky).  

See? Healthy.

Bean photo op.

Tennou Shinto Shrine Azalea, Shichinohe

A Shinto shrine sits at the top of a hill in the town of Shichinohe (a little under 14 miles west of Misawa and a 45 minute drive). In May, the hill, which is covered by azalea bushes, turns a brilliant shade of orangey-red. A few of my friends and I went to see them and then, because you are obligated to stop for gelato anytime you are in the vicinity of Kaneko Farm, we went and had a picnic lunch followed by gelato at Namiki. 

We had a double win at Kaneko that day! The Nanohana were still in bloom and we were treated to a perfectly clear day so we could see the beautiful snow-capped Hakkoda mountains! It really doesn't get much better than that! 

Nanbu Peony Festival 

My friend Anna and I took our kids and their floppy sun hats out for yet another spin around a flower festival in May. There is a peony festival in Nanbu town (a little over 20 miles south of Misawa) that we just had to go and see. Boy, were we glad we did! I have always loved peonies, but I had no idea how cool they really were. Pictures do them better justice than my words. 

They are so unimpressed with us sometimes...

Gonohe Dahlias

Perhaps the most stunning flowers I have seen to date (and I have seen a lot of flowers) were the Dahlias in Gonohe (about 13 miles southwest of Misawa).  I have always said my favorite flower is Hydrangea, and I really do love Hydrangea, but man, Dahlias are seriously incredible. The only association I had with Dahlias before visiting this field in Gonohe (and it really was just a field- not a festival-  just a field that we drove 40 minutes to see), was the Black Dahlia. Suffice it to say I was awestruck by the beauty of these flowers. Dahlias and Hydrangea are both especially amazing because of their color variation within just one bloom- it is was what makes both of these flowers my favorite. 

Even the trash is beautiful!

No, we were nowhere near Namiki, but since apparently gelato is just what you do after looking at flowers, we made an afternoon trip! I finally got to try the seasonal apple flavor, delicious!

And while we are on the subject of Namiki gelato and flowers, allow me to share some shots of the sunflowers (I actually don't have that many good pictures of the sunflowers because they were facing the sun...go figure...but these kids are a pretty cute compromise) we saw in bloom there on a random afternoon ice cream outing. Like I said, there is just something about flowers and ice cream!

Got to try pumpkin gelato! She calls the cone "cracker."

A little tractor pulled us around the sunflower fields...just gorgeous.