Plum Blossom Viewing
City : All Kansai
Plum blossom is the sign that winter is about to end. Plum trees planted in a park and a shrine in Japan bloom during February and March, and people enjoy viewing flowers and its fragrance.
Plum (Ume) trees are not as popular as cherry trees, but people visit shrines and parks where large number and varieties of plum trees come into bloom.
Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (Kyoto) :
An old Shinto shrine, Kitano Tenmangu has 50 types, 2000 plum trees including 1000 in the adjacent garden. The garden opened on Feb 7 this year, and scheduled to close in late March.
There are many Tenmangu shrines across the country and Kitano is the most important one. Every tenmangu enshrines Sugawara, the politician in the 10th century who loved plum blossom, so the shrine's emblem shows five petals of a plum flower.
Opening hours : 5am to 6pm in summer, 5:30am to 5:30pm in winter.
Plum Garden : 10am to 4pm between early February and mid March. admission 600 yen.
Access : Take the City Bus (numbers shown on the map below) to Kitano Tenmangu Mae. If you walk from the nearest JR station, Enmachi, it takes about 20 minutes.
Web site : http://www.kitanotenmangu.or.jp/eigo/index.html
In the East of the shrine is an oldest Geiko district, Kamishichiken. It is recommended to walk the street lined with geiko houses wooden building.
Banpaku-Koen Park (Osaka) :
A very large (264 hectare) park consists of playground, pond, woods, Japanese garden, national museum, and 65 meter-high towering object. You can enjoy flowers of each season. In February and March, 700 plum trees (150 types) have white and pink flowers. From Feb.13 to Mar. 7 (2010), they have "Plum Festival" in which the Japanese style tea house is specially opened and the green tea is offered.
Opening hours : 9:30 to 4:30 Close on Wednesday.
Admission : 250 yen
Access : From Osaka or Shin-Osaka station, take Midosuji Line to Senri-Chuo and change for Monorail. Get off at Banpaku Kinen-Koen station. From Kyoto, take JR train to Ibaraki station and get Kintetsu bus to Nihon Teien Mae and enter the park from the East gate. For another way from Kyoto, take Hankyu train to Minami Ibaraki station and change for the Monorail.
Web site : http://www.expo70.or.jp/e/index.html
Nagahama Bonbai (Shiga) :
Nagahama is the city located 80km northeast of Kyoto and Bonbai means bonsai or potted tree of plum tree. They exhibit their excellent works of bonbai only for two months each year. It started in 1952. They have 90 pots this year including 400 year-old tree and 3 meter-high tree.
2010 Opening hours : Jan.20 to Mar.10, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Last admission at 4:30 p.m.)
Admission : 500 yen
Access : Bonbai exhibition is held at an old wooden building called Keiunkan. Take JR train from Kyoto to Nagahama station. It takes about an hour and 1280 yen. Then walk three minutes from Nagahama station.
Web site (Japanese) : http://www.nagahamashi.org/bonbai/
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