Ayabeyama Plum Grove 綾部山梅林
Today I went to 綾部山梅林 (Ayabeyama Bairin) which is also known as 世界の梅公園 (World Plum Park). From Sannomiya, it took just over an hour by train to get to Aboshi (I took the JR line, because that way I would only have to switch trains one time, but you could also take the Sanyo electric instead). From there, there was a convenient bus (which also goes to Sanyo-Aboshi) that took you from just outside the station right to the plum park. My timing was really good today, because I only had to wait about 5 minutes for the bus to come! The bus ride took about 20 minutes, and cost 350 yen (which is a little bit expensive, but it's convenient, so...). Actually, outside the station there were a few different bus stops, and after checking out the first couple, I was unsure of which one I needed to wait at, so I asked a couple of older ladies who were sitting on a bench waiting for a bus. Turns out they were going the same place as me! Anyway, they pointed me to the right bus stop, at which point I felt really stupid. There was a big pink paper right on that bus stop indicating that the bus went out to the plum park. Guess I should've walked a little further. Oh well, Japanese practice....On arriving at the park, you have to pay a 500 yen entrance fee, which also gives you a complementary drink of either ume (plum) juice or amazake at one of two locations along the way. Of course, there are also other food and drink stalls along the way as well, but those are mostly located around the two entrances to the park.
When I first got into the park, I was worried that I wouldn't actually be able to see any blossoms, because many of the trees nears the entrance only had buds, if that. But as I got further in, there were more trees that had blossoms on them, although not as many as I had hoped. I think that when the trees actually are all in blossom, it would be so beautiful and colorful! (Maybe I'll have to try again later in March...) But the bonus of being a little early in the season was that there weren't huge crowds of people there!
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| The view from the top |
As you walk through the park, there are a few different paths that you can take. The one I chose to take first wound it's way up the side of the mountain, and took me up to the viewing point at the top. I ended up rather high, and got some nice pictures, but it really didn't feel like going uphill at all. The incline was really gentle, and there were lots of twists and turns, and awesome views to distract you.
Another one of the paths winds through the grove/orchard, and takes you more along the area where the plum trees are. Of course, you can also go off the path, and wander around in and among the trees. Many people were in fact off the path, doing things like having picnics, or painting the scenery.
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| Although these look like oranges, I was talking to someone and they very clearly called them lemons, even when I seemed surprised by that. |
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| I really want to see them when they're all in bloom.... |
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| Not my first time to see one with yellow flowers, but they seem much more rare... |
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| The yellow ones also have a really strong scent! |
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| These tiny little purple/blue flowers were growing every where on the ground. For context...that orange thing is kumquat sized. |
About halfway through for me (or at the other entrance to the park), I stopped to collect on my complementary drink -- ume juice! So yummy! It's been a long time since I've had any, and I almost forgot how much I like the taste. I want to drink more!
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| Delicious plum juice!! |
This video gives an overview of my day out to the plum grove...
If the video doesn't work, you can watch it here.
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Okamoto Park 岡本公園
A couple of weeks ago, I took a walk down to Okamoto Park, because I had found out that it was supposed to have a lot of plum trees as well, so I wanted to check it out. It was quite easy to find, because they had many large pink banners up and out displaying the way to the park. It was quite a small park, but it did have some nice plum blossoms, although, of course, being the middle of February, there weren't so many. (I think maybe that's why I was surprised not to see so many in the park I went to today, because there had already been blossoms that I had seen a couple weeks prior. |
| Follow the pink banners! |
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| Basically it says "Plum grove -->" and Okamoto Park |
Actually, on that particular day, I had been planning to do a much longer walk, but the weather suddenly got quite a bit cooler, and it actually started snowing as well!
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Sorakuen 租楽園
Last weekend, after getting my haircut, I decided to visit Sorakuen, a Japanese garden here in Kobe, because I hadn't actually been before, although I had intended to go. From the research that I had done, I thought I would be able to see some more plum trees there, but unfortunately there were none. Or if there were, they weren't in bloom yet. It turns out that this particular park is really small, and while there are some nice parts, there really isn't that much to see. Not to mention they were doing some construction on some of the buildings inside. I thought it was a little bit disappointing, but maybe I've been spoiled by having visited some of the bigger and nicer gardens in Japan?
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| There's a really short 'tunnel' to walk through... |
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| This was apparently a pleasure boat/barge that was built sometime between 1600 and 1700 |
Some koi in the pond at Sorakuen...
If the video doesn't work, you can watch it here.
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Other Things
This month, other adventures included various walks, going to a couple lives, meeting up with a friend to help practice speaking in English, and trying some new foods.Walking is straightforward...here's a couple photos:
I also shouldn't have to explain lives...although, this month the live at Pinot was a little bit different than usual. Turns out that the during the time of that live (well, apparently that whole week), they were celebrating Bar Pinot Noir's 4th anniversary! So, that particular night, not only Yoshida-san, but also Tatsu-san (the owner) sang. It wasn't bad, but I wanted to hear more of Yoshida-san...Also, that night, there were so many bottles of champagne on the counter from people who were offering their congratulations, and throughout the night, more and more were delivered. There must have been more than 20 bottles!
One of the new foods that I tried this month was a fruit called cherimoya. I recommend trying it! It's wonderful!
