茶碗蒸

Alrighty - I think you have all deserved a break from the Italy marathon so here’s the reward for all your efforts to chew through my relentless stream of photos and (probably quite terribly) researched Italian history… Spring is here at last!!!

The Cherry Blossom Festival at Miyazu Garden has been an annual event for as long as I can remember. Perhaps influenced by my potentially Japanese past-life (?), it has always been a small but sure signal for Spring’s arrival when I see the colourful flyers for this event being posted up around the city - and this year was no exception. So when Becky invited me to join her and Nic at the festival this morning, there was no reason for me to hesitate.

What a stunning day for it too! The sunlight was glorious after a bit of a frosty night, and the temperature rose steadily along with the buzzing of light-hearted conversation and squeals of excited children as I parked my car (with some difficulty according to Nelson standards!) and made my way towards the entrance just after 11.30. Sure enough, there was already quite a crowd when I stepped through the gate and strode up the winding path towards the main body of the festival where families were cheerfully gathered around the ponds sharing a laugh and the stall keepers were busy serving up mountains of steaming yakisoba and taiyaki. The air was already thick with the mouth-watering aroma of yakitori, and it was almost painful to tear my eyes away from a stand selling green tea flavoured cream puffs. There was the beginning of a queue stretching along the path for sushi and coffee, and even a fairly out-of-place cart selling Chinese food (come on – surely they know better than that!!).

Despite the crowd, it was surprisingly quick meeting up with the girls and we took our time wandering around the grounds watching the archery demonstrations (you could even make your own bow!) and live performances each representing a different aspect of Japanese culture. After a while we decided to settle down on the grassy slope amongst the other picnickers, just in time to listen to a three-lady singing group perform. The group was called “Nanami” and had flown in from Wellington this morning especially for the occasion, and it was soon quite clear why. The songs were delightful (even heard a couple of familiar ones like “Sakura” by Moriyama Naotaro – 森山直太朗的「櫻花」=) ) and their voices truly seemed to weave a magical quality throughout the park, rocking me back gently into a warm state of nostalgia as I drunk in the beautiful scene of shimmering pink blossoms against the sapphire blue sky. If I closed my eyes I was sure I could once again see the shy smiles and happy chatter of the Takadai students as they walked through the school gates under that same shower of snowy petals.    

And surely you can’t call it a Japanese festival without these little fellas!! 

Then just after 1pm came one of the other highlights of the festival – a performance by the Raijin ( 雷神) Taiko Drumming Group based here in Nelson. Perhaps it was the natural instincts built into our human DNA, I’ve always found that the sharp beats of the various taiko drums aroused a primitive feeling from deep within me that sent my blood almost humming with pulses of energy. As the bachi (drum sticks) struck the drum skin, I could feel my skin tingle in awe of the great powers that were released by the graceful and yet firm moves of the drummers. The fact that an entire story could be portrayed by simply using different rhythms and acoustics of the drums was also mind-blowing. Such as the piece called “Sankou” ( 山行), meaning mountain hiking, cleverly imitated the heavy footfalls of the hiker as he struggles towards the summit with slow beats on the Chu-daiko (medium-sized taiko). It was without a doubt a thoroughly mesmerizing and enchanting performance.  

P.S. Good luck to our boys for the first match in the Rugby World Cup tomorrow morning!!! Go the almighty All Blacks =))))