Local Festival

My aunt in Tokyo passed away after 11 years of struggle against progressive supranuclear palsy. I went to Tokyo to be present at cremation. My parents and I stayed in a small hotel in a downtown. There was a small local harvest festival going on at a shrine near the hotel. Nobody is growing rice in the middle of the city any longer but such a tradition has been succeeded to our generation.

Entrance of the shrine. A cotton candy (or spun sugar?) is kids' favorite at a festival like this.

Bananas coated with chocolate.

This is the main and the only stage of this festival. Ladies in a summer kimono (or yukata) were dancing along a traditional music.

Spider Lily

Red spider lilies (Lycoris radiata) are my favorite autumn flowers. They come out and bloom exactly in Higan week, so they are called Higan-bana (or Higan flower). Higan is the week of Buddhist memorial services centering on the autumn (and spring also) equinox.

They grow usually on ridges between rice fields probably because farmers planted them as emergency foods for a famine. We don't eat them any more since they are poisonous, but they say their roots are edible after being soaked in running water for a while.

By the time when the red spider lilies come out, paddy fields turn yellow and are almost ready for harvestl. I love the beautiful contrast between the yellow fields and the red ridges between them.

At this writing (Oct. 22) harvesting of a rice crop is finished in the most paddy fields.

Rice

Time goes by really fast. It's middle of September! While I was forced to keep myself busy, many things happened this summer.

Now it is fall already. Paddy fields turned yellow and are ready for harvest.