Ume Matsuri

Ume Matsuri, or Plum Blossom Festival (are you catching on that Matsuri means festival?) is kind of the first feeling of spring.  Starting in March the plum blossoms arrive!!!  We drove to Hikari which is about an hour away, in the opposite direction of Hiroshima, to an orchard covering a hill that is just full of Plum trees, and when they are in bloom the entire hillside is covered with these gorgeous flowers, in white, and all different shades of pink.  I'll let you know now that this post is mostly pictures, because it is so beautiful!!

We had a beautiful view of the ocean from the top of the hill

Kyle and I

The girls

Wishes at the temple

The fam

At the temple

Pretty red bridge leading to the temple

being silly

Lovely flowers

The girls and I went home with Ume Bonsai's!

My pretty little bonsai

 

 

If the Ume is this beautiful, I cannot WAIT until it's Sakura season!  Only around one more week until the Sakura blossoms arrive!!

Hina Matsuri

In February I went on a cultural trip within Iwakuni to learn about Hina Matsuri, or the Hina Doll Festival, also known as Girls Day.  It is a national holiday in Japan, to celebrate girls and to wish them health and happiness and marriage.  Starting in February they set up these step platforms to place the Hina Dolls on, the emperor and empress on top and their posse on the steps below.

 

 

We went to a community center in Iwakuni where we learned about Hina Matsuri and helped place all of the dolls where they are supposed to go, then we made Iwakuni sushi (and ate it!), went back upstairs and tried on part of a kimono and had a traditional tea ceremony!  It was a really great experience learning about the culture and history and about Girls Day. 

Me placing one of the dolls on the platform!

A and I

The ingredients for Iwakuni Sushi, Banana leaf on the bottom, rice, lotus root, shiitake mushrooms, carrot, sweetened ground fish, vegetable, then egg!

E and A helping make sushi!

It is made in this wooden box

You press it with this top (while it is still in the box, we were deconstructing it at this point)

Yum!!  We had a large piece of the sushi, seaweed miso soup, and a lotus root salad.  I'm not a fan of seaweed, I tried the miso but didn't care for it, but the sushi and the lotus root salad were so yummy!

 

Trying on the Kimono, for being just the outer robe it was really heavy!  The empress would wear TWELVE for special occasions!!!

Green tea

We served each other

Part of the tradition

The wonderful ladies who taught us all about their culture!!!

 

 

Bikan Trip

We had a girls day trip in January to the Bikan Historical District in Kurashiki, the main draws were the historical white wall district and two outlet malls (that had Coldstone and Krispy Kreme!).  We took a bus about 2.5 hours away and immediately set off to find the old town.  It was GORGEOUS!  Felt like we were stepping back in time, all these old buildings on a cobblestone street separated by a beautiful canal. 

"The real housewives of Japan"

The shops and trees and canal

 

 

D in a cool phone booth

Just a beautiful place

 

We found this temple that was on the top of a hill, and climbed about a million stairs to get to the top to see it.

(a million stairs, count them)

A shrine within the temple grounds

E, D, me and A!

 

Probably my favorite place of the day was the Turkish store we found.  There were these beautiful pieces of bright colored pottery out front, all hand crafted by the owners who are from Turkey.  That was what drew us in initially (and now I really wish I had taken a picture of the pottery) but once we went inside, I was just enthralled.  It smelled like spices and was dark and full of beautiful things.  Hanging all throughout the store were these gorgeous glass mosaic lanterns, every single one was different and unique.  If I was a millionaire I would have bought every single one of them. 

 

Amazing!!

They invited us to have some Turkish tea, which was delicious and fun!

 

 

Even though I couldn't afford to buy one of the amazing lanterns, I did walk away with a beautiful handmade bowl.

 

I love it!