Sakura at Okazaki castle

After having spent last weekend at Kuragaike park (which is a huge place to cover in a day) boating, exploring the gardens and checking out the views, we decided to visit Okazaki castle this weekend.

Basically, sakura viewing goes by this sakura almanac called the sakurazensen announced by the Japanese Meteorological Agency. Every year, a forecast is given as to which is the perfect time to view sakura in your prefecture. The sakura season lasts for a couple of weeks or so. According to the Nagoya international association's webpage, the cherry blossom front moves from South to North up the Japanese archipelago, Motobu Town in Okinawa seeing blossoms as early as mid-January, and Nemuro City, on the north-eastern tip of Hokkaido, as belatedly as late-May. In Nagoya the year on year average date for the first blossoms to appear was March 28.

The Japanese enjoy picnic lunches under the cherry blossoms and have a great deal of fun - also known traditionally as 'hanami' or 'flower viewing'. Last year, we had been to Kyoto where we visited Kiyomizu-dera which was fully lit up at night. I thought then that there is nothing more beautiful than watching the blossoms wave gently in the wind making post card picture views against the backdrop of what is one of the most serene and calm temples I have been to in Japan.

This year, we thought maybe a castle and a riverside would make hanami a different experience to cherish and off we went on a bright, sunny weekend to Okazaki. We started early in the morning armed with a picnic lunch,a camera and sturdy walking shoes. And it was simply fantastic!!

We were welcomed by trees laden with pink blossoms as far as the eye could see. Usually, the places most suitable for hanami also have hanami matsuri - or a sort of fair - happening. Like a Tamil 'Thiruvilla'! We first took a few pictures, then tiring of the camera, decided to stroll around and explore. Many people had already formed groups under the trees and I could hear music and voracious laughter from everywhere.

A Japanese band performing on the drums and flute captured our attention for a while.

After brief stops at the local jinja, the samurai museum (which was exciting because of the wonderful katanas on display - visitors could don samurai head gear and swords and take photos too!), and a beautiful view from the top of the Okazaki castle, we headed down to a much awaited lunch underneath the cherry blossoms.

We picked a slope on the banks of a lake near the castle - and it was a lunch to remember. Above us was a canopy of blue sky with the prettiest pattern of pink flowers all over it. Around us were happy picnickers, in front was a fountain at the center of the lake which helped create the impression of tiny waves forever rippling across it's sunlit surface. To frame the view of the fountain, we had a cherry blossom tree to both the right and the left. And to complete this picture, we had pink petals falling all around us like snow constantly. Every gush of the wind only brought more pretty pink flakes to settle on our heads, the lunch and everywhere forming a carpet of pink for us to rest on. We sat there taking in the delicate loveliness, on the lake slope, till the sun went down before going off to explore the matsuri. Reluctantly, we packed our things and waited to take a few more pictures before we climbed back to the road.


The matsuri was fun as well. It's easier to find veggie stuff at a matusri than a Japanese restaurant in my experience! There's yummy jagabuta (steamed potatoes that is served steaming hot with butter and mayonaise - to be eaten to be believed!!), castala (baby castor cakes - again served hot, but very buttery - the crunchy outer part of the cake is the bezt part of it), hot steamed corn (sort of like our Indian bhuta - but the difference is here it is served with soy sauce and is as yummy!), bananas dipped in chocolate (sounds funny - but is yummy!) and so on. And if you look carefully enough, you'll find stalls that are very interesting. There were a couple of stalls worth mentioning this time. In one stall, they sold goldfish - in a rather different style. Each customer is given a soup bowl and a paper filter. The buyer has to scoop out as many fish as possible till the paper tears. Even if they are unsuccessful, they win a fish no matter what. It was awesome watching young kids scoop out more goldfish than seasoned grown ups who usually landed up with a solitary fish. There was also this European who made the prettiest name badges out of gold wire. He made a very charming badge for me in two minutes flat - complete with a heart and a jingling bell attached to it's end!