Flowers in Iwata (2) - 800 year old wisteria trees in Gyokoji Temple

After visiting the Museum of Fragrance, Iwata, I went back to the bus station to take the free shuttle bus to Gyokoji Temple, where wisteria blossoms were in full bloom. They are called “Yuya no Nagafuji” or Yuya’s long wisteria and considered more than 800 years old. Yuya is the name of a princess who is said to have planted the trees.

The bus left the bus stop at 15:15. It took less than 15 minutes to get there. There were much more people in the temple than I had expected, taking pictures here and there. This is one of the old trees that are one of the natural monuments designated by Shizuoka Prefecture.

This is Yuya or Yuyagozen who is one of the characters in an old Japanese novel “Heike-monogatari” and lived in this area.

I saw white wisteria blossoms for the first time.

Behind the temple, there is Toyoda Yuya Memorial Park. This park has also wisteria trellises, and there were some groups eating and drinking under the trees just like at the time of cherry-blossom viewing.

This twisting tree was interesting.

Yuya no Nagafuji is worth seeing. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so I couldn’t see sunlight coming through these wisteria trellises as I expected. I remember seeing such a scene in some other place when I was very little and how beautiful it was. Maybe I’ll come again in the future when it is fine.

Flowers in Iwata (1) - The Most Beautiful Flowers by Redouté

From yesterday, April 27, to the beginning of May, we have more national holidays than usual because the current emperor will abdicate, and his son will be enthroned on May 1. Many people have 10-day holidays, which may be unusual for corporate employees. Though I’m a freelancer, I have also much time during these holidays.

Today, I went to Iwata to see flowers. While I was still walking in downtown of Hamamatsu, I saw beautiful roses. They seemed be taken care of by people who live near there.

I took train to Toyoda-cho and went to the bus stop from which a free shuttle bus goes to Gyokoji Temple I wanted to visit. There I learned that the bus leaves very one hour, and I had to wait for 50 minutes. So, I went to the Museum of Fragrance, Iwata first, which I had intended to visit later.

The museum has now an exhibition “Choix Des Plus Belles Fleurs (The Most Beautiful Flowers) by Redouté and Fragrance of Roses.“ After I bought an entrance ticket, I got a surprise from a staff member of the museum. She handed me real roses! I heard later that they are given out to visitors on weekends.

This time, it was prohibited to take pictures inside of the exhibition. It’s a pity but understandable. The exhibition showed a collection of botanical art of Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840). He was a court painter to Queen Marie Antoinette and Empress Josephine.

The pictures were very finely and delicately painted. It reminded me pictures in encyclopedia. The most interesting thing for me was, however, the fragrance of Marie Antoinette. The fragrance of roses matched her image. There was also the fragrance of Josephine, which was sharper than that of Marie Antoinette. If I had known much about Josephine, I could have appreciated the fragrance better.

Outside of the exhibition rooms of the pictures, there were bottles to smell the fragrance of different kinds of roses. After enjoying them, I went to the tea room. They had a new drink, rose soda, on the menu. It looked a little different from the rose juice I had last time.

It had also a red rose on top.

These are roses I got from the staff member when I bought the ticket at the entrance.

Rose soda had a similar fragrance to rose juice, but its taste was lighter. As it was carbonated, it was refreshing, and I thought it may be better to drink in summer.

The gift shop was selling many things concerning roses. These are magnetic clips.

Sweets such as candies and gummi candies.

There were even smartphone cases.

The goods sold there were totally different from the last time, giving visitors new inspiration. I thought that it might be worth purchasing an annual pass (1000 yen) for the museum.

Saizeriya - Casual Italian restaurant popular among young people

Saizeriya is a popular Italian restaurant chain. It has more than 1,000 restaurants all over Japan, including 6 restaurants in Hamamatsu. One of them is located downtown and easily seen from the street, but I had never been there before until today. This may be because it is on the second floor in a building, and I couldn’t imagine how it looked inside.

Recently, I had been busy with work and wanted to have a substantial dinner for a change. From some websites, I had heard that Saizeriya is convenient for vegetarians and vegans to eat outside the home. On their website, they provide information on ingredients of each dish, and I found there are five menu items that are vegan-friendly.

Today I went there around six o’clock in the evening. It was not very crowded, and I could choose where to sit. On the wall, there was a big picture of an angel. It felt comfortable to see it.

After ordering all the five vegan-friendly menu items, I went to fetch some water. The restaurant has a beverage station, but I had just water this time. As I looked around, I noticed that many of the customers were young people including high school students, both boys and girls. After a while, two dishes came to me. They were Salad with “Carottes râpée” & Ravigote Sauce and Pickled Celery.

The salad was colorful with vegetables such as carrot, tomato, diced paprika and zucchini (?), and green leaves. It was flavored with vinegar and olive oil and was sour and sweet. I should have mixed the ingredients well before I tasted it, but I didn’t notice that instruction on the menu. Maybe I’ll do that next time. Pickled Celery was also flavored with vinegar and olive oil but was not so sweet as the salad. The portion was much more than I expected, which surprised me a bit.

Then, I had Grilled Potato with a pack of tomato sauce and Spaghetti “ALIO OLIO.”

Grilled Potato was a little harder than French fries of other restaurants I know but was sufficiently grilled. The spaghetti flavored simply with garlic and olive oil was also al dente and good. When I finished them, I was quite full but had a dessert Lemon Sorbet finally.

Though it was vegan, it was thick and creamy. It was sour and refreshing. I wondered if it was ok to come to Saizeriya just to eat this sorbet, not for lunch or dinner. When I left the restaurant, I understood why it seemed to be popular among young people. They provide substantial meals at reasonable prices, even for vegetarians and vegans! My dinner costed only 1195 yen in total, so it was great value for money.

Saizeriya
Address: fun Building 2F, 70-1 Chitose-cho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-450-8311
Open hours: 11:00 - 0:00
Access: 8-minute walk from JR Hamamatsu Station

Sweet gold kiwis from New Zealand

Today is my mother’s birthday, so I went to my parents’ house to give her presents in the morning. One of them was a cup of gold kiwis from New Zealand. In recent years, kiwis have been increasingly cultivated in Japan, but mother prefers those from New Zealand. She says that they are sweeter than Japanese ones.

I heard gold kiwis have been specifically developed for Japanese people who like to eat sweet fruits. They are surely sweeter than green ones. In addition, they contain more Vitamin C while green ones are richer in dietary fiber. Usually, I eat green kiwis at home because they are easier to find, but now gold kiwis seem to be available in many stores. Their season has just started.

My parents have salad like this every day. They had already some kiwis at home, and we ate them for lunch. They were mellow. I added some olive oil on the salad as mother did.

In addition to this, she prepared soup containing tomato, cabbage, shiitake mushroom, carrot, potato,  and pumpkin. First, she stirred these vegetables with olive oil and then cooked them after adding water. The other day, I made similar soup, but this soup was sweeter with pumpkin. It was eye-opening that pumpkin can be used not only for pumpkin potage but also in this kind of soup with tomato!

When I left, I noticed violets near the gate. According to mother, they have been in bloom since the beginning of this year. Can it be true?

Vegan bread of PECK

In the basement of Entetsu Department Store, you can see a stand of PECK selling their bread sometimes. I had misunderstood for a long time that it was a bakery, but it is an Italian delicatessen shop founded in 1883.

Today was the last day of their sales period this time, so I bought two kinds of vegan bread, focaccia and ciabatta. You can see focaccia in many Italian restaurant in Japan, but focaccia of PECK look different from others. They are brown and soaked in olive oil.

I bought one during the lunch time. In the evening, immediately before eating it, I noticed that some oil had oozed from focaccia and was glittering.

As I ate it, I didn’t feel that it was too oily. I enjoyed the flavor of juicy olive oil and simple salty taste of bread.

The other bread ciabatta is also traditional Italian bread. According to the explanation in PECK, ciabatta means a slipper.

As ciabatta is flat, it may be easy to make a sandwich with it, but I cut it and ate with a tomato soup. The cross section looked like this. It tasted a little sweeter than baguette though I had imagined that they had similar tastes.

In addition to a tomato, the soup contained leftover vegetables such as dried radish, shiitake mushroom, Japanese mustard spinach, and potato and was seasoned with salt and soy sauce. This is one of the simplest dishes I usually have.

PECK has some permanent shops in Japan. The nearest shop from Hamamatsu is the one in JR Nagoya Takashimaya. I like traditional European bread. Simple is the best!

Trip to Osaka (2) - Indian Vegetarian Restaurant Shama

Last Sunday, I had work to do at home, so I could stay in Osaka just for four hours. After leaving Osaka Museum of History, I took Tanimachi Line again and got off at Tennoji. Near the station, there is ABENO HARUKAS, the tallest building in Japan with a height of 300 mm. I found that it costs 1500 yen to get to the observatory, so I just took a picture from the garden on the 16th floor.

It was lunch time, and I wondered if there were any vegetarian-friendly restaurants in ABENO HARUKAS. But I had already decided where to eat. So, I just explored in the shop of ABENO HARUKAS Art Museum for a while and hurried to the last destination. I took Midosuji Line from Tennnoji to Daikoku-cho, changed the subway to Yotsubashi Line, and got off at Yotsubashi. After walking southward from Exit 6 for a few minutes, I found a board with pictures beside an intersection. They were examples of lunch sets of Indian Vegetarian Restaurant Shama.

On the board, you can see “不含五辛” that means “not containing five spicy foods” (based on Buddhism). So, this restaurant is suitable also for Taiwanese or Chinese vegetarians. In fact, it seems to be very popular among them as I have seen many Chinese-speaking people enjoying their meals there.

Shama is located in the basement of the building. Last year, I came to this restaurant after I attended to medical yoga classes in Osaka. As it provides lacto-vegetarian and vegan dishes, I had always ordered vegan options. This time, I had Shama Set and selected vegan options as before. These are soup and salad served at the beginning. The salad had a little piece of tofu on top and seasoned with soy sauce.

The next dish was a samosa, vegemomo, and soya-tikka sizzling on a hot plate! They looked appetizing and were really good.

While I was absorbed in eating, two kinds of sauce were served. I put a spoonful of each of them on the samosa. The orange sauce was ok, but the green was very hot.

Then, a plate of vege pakora came. They are vegetables fried with chickpea flour. Since vege pakora was my favorite dish, I was glad to have them. But I wondered if they were really included in the set. Anyway, I enjoyed eating it. Shama has also a menu item called “Pakora sand.” It is pakora wrapped with chapati or flat bread made of whole wheat flour. I like it very much.

Then, naan bread, rice, and two kinds of curry were served. For the curry, I chose potato and spinach curry and chickpea curry from four options. The vegan naan break looked green because it contained spinach. I was quite full after I had finished this big bread. I was very happy to have a substantial meal.

As drink, I had iced rooibos tea.

And finally, a dessert that may be a little unusual for an Indian restaurant was served. It was black sesame soya-milk pudding. I couldn’t go back to Hamamatsu without eating it!

I like the casual atmosphere of Shama. Unlike many other vegetarian restaurants whose customers are mainly women, Shama can attract both men and women. You can have a substantial lunch or dinner that I think is satisfactory even for men in their prime age. Their meals are not meager at all, breaking the prejudice against vegetarian or vegan diet.

I think I’ll come to Shama again in the next season of Seishun 18. If you are interested in the restaurant, search with “Indian Vegetarian Restaurant Shama.” In addition to the basic information, you can see their menu with pictures.

Trip to Osaka (1) - Osaka Museum of History

During the year-end and New Year’s holidays, I went on trips to Yokohama and Atami with Seishun 18, an economical ticket issued by JR. This spring, I wanted to go to the opposite direction, to the Kansai region with Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. Especially, I wanted to see Osaka Castle from a certain building located near the castle.

Last Sunday, I managed to go to Osaka. I left JR Hamamatsu Station at 6:01 by the first train going westward. I changed the train at Maibara and arrived at Osaka at 10:13. Then I took subway Tanimachi Line to Tanimachi 4-Chome Station and got out from Exit 9.

The first destination Osaka Museum of History was the brown building just in front of the exit.

The layout in this museum is very interesting. First, visitors should go up to the 10th floor by an elevator. There I could enjoy the view I had expected: Osaka Castle with cherry blossoms!

Though this was my second visit, it was interesting to explore in the museum. The 10th floor presents the ancient period focusing on Daigokuden on Naniwa Palace. It is a life-size spacious replica with mannequins dressed in ancient cloths. The long dresses of the court ladies reminded me of ancient Chinese dresses. They were elegant.

The 9th floor has an exhibition of the middle ages and early modern period. In Edo Period Zone, you can hear about the life of townspeople told in lively Osaka dialect. Since I’m interested in languages, I get always excited to hear the local dialect whenever I go on a trip to somewhere. Also this time, I enjoyed the narration very much (In addition, they have an audio guide system in four languages).

In Edo period (1603-1868), Osaka was called the kitchen of Japan as it was a center of commerce and logistics. This is the main port of Ajikawa River. Osaka has been also called Water City.

This is the rice market of Dojima.

And the vegetable market in Tenma.

In the Edo period, Osaka had a population of 400,000 already. This is the center of commerce Senba in the middle of the 19th century. Those who lived in these substantial houses must be rich merchants.

Osaka also has a famous cultural heritage Bunraku. It is a puppet theater art founded there in the 17th century. As I looked at the expression of this doll, I felt like visiting a bunraku theater someday.

This is a kabuki theater. People in Osaka seemed to enjoy a rich cultural life.

The 7th floor of the museum has the exhibition of the modern and contemporary period. There you can see a part of a life-size kabuki theater with mannequins.

While I was exploring on this floor, I was surprised by mannequins whose postures were so realistic.

This is a greengrocer having a year-end sale in 1940.

I like the way the museum presents the life of ordinary people. You can have a feeling of closeness to the history. On the 7th floor, you can try kimono free of charge. If you are interested in this museum, search with “Osaka Museum of History.” They provide information in 9 languages.

Hamamatsu Flower Park (3) - Yozakuramochi

After seeing cherry blossoms and tulips, I walked toward the gate. I saw a Ferris wheel beyond trees, from which you may have a wonderful view over the park.

Between the main gate of the park and the greenhouse Crystal Palace, there is a big pond. Around 17:00, a fountain show started. I thought it might be beautiful at night.

The cherry blossoms in Hamamatsu Flower Park were illuminated at night from March 29 to April 7. During that period, the last entry time was 20:30. In Japanese, we have a specific word for “cherry blossoms at night.” It is “yozakura”, and Hamamatsu Flower Park was selling yozakuramochi or night cherry rice cake at their souvenir shop.

In this blog, I have introduced Kansai-style sakuramochi in the article “Vegan sweets in March.” Sakura means cherry, and sakuramochi is a rice cake stuffed with adzuki bean paste and wrapped with a cherry leaf. Yozakuramochi is a specialty of this park and available only there. The difference between sakuramochi and yozakuramochi is that yozakuramochi is coated with ground sesame and looks blackish.

When I got to the souvenir shop a little over 17:00, yozakuramochi was already sold out! I was shocked and left the park without buying anything. While waiting for a bus to JR Hamamatsu Station, I was thinking of sprinkling ground sesame on ordinary sakuramochi to prepare yozakuramochi.

Though I missed yozakuramochi, I could see yozakura in some other places in this season. This picture is from Hamamatsu Castle. Cherry blossoms looked different at night, and there were still people eating a picnic under the trees.

Hamamatsu Flower Park
Address: 195 Kanzanji-cho, Nishi-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-487-0511
Admissin fee: Varies depending on seasons
Open hours: March - September 9:00 - 17:00 (Last entry at 16:30)
                    October - November 9:00 - 16:30 (Last entry at 16:00)
                    December - February 10:00 - 16:30 (Last entry at 16:00)

                    During Lake Hamana Flower Festa 2019
                    March 21, 2019 - May 6, 2019 8:30 - 17:30
                    May 7, 2019 - June 30, 2019 9:00 - 17:00
Closed: December 29 to 31
Access: Take the "Kanzanji Onsen" line bus from Stop #1 in the bus terminal to "Flower Park"