Tsushima Escapades: The Search for Fuji

Last week was "Golden Week," during which there are a bunch of national holidays. Typically I`d take days off from work to get the full week off and travel to different countries during this time-- India last year, a trip home the year before-- but this year, I wanted to stay in Tsushima. The weather usually gets gorgeous in early May, and I also wanted to attend the Hitotsubatago Festival, named after a local flowering shree (shrub/tree) which blossom white all over Waniura`s mountain-hills (the northernmost village in Tsushima). There`s a lot of comparison in Japanese poetry with cherry blossoms and snow-- the falling petals looking like snow, etc-- but the hitotsubatago flowers really blanket the hills like snow.

Unfortunately, the day before the festival was very windy. Preparations for the festival, including setting up tents and the main stage area, couldn`t be completed, so the festival was cancelled.

Still, many of the days off were nice weather, so I went out exploring the now-flower-laden island. The main goal of my flower-searching expeditions was to find some fuji, or wisteria. Although it`s apparently common and even considered an invasive plant in the mid-to-southern eastern seaboard states, I`d never seen wisteria before. And, unlike many spring flowers-- cherry blossoms, hitotsubatago, azaleas, and hydragneas-- there is no one spot on Tsushima where you can find fuji in abundance. So I followed a lead from one of my tea ladies that there was some being cultivated in the southern river-park and looked for wild wisteria along the way.

I was wildly more successful than anticipated. Here`s some wild wisteria from around Nita; the vine climbed other plants and bloomed on top of them.

Looking south from a look-out tower; my fuji expedition led me beyond the new flooded rice-fields, looking like a small pond in this picture.

Here are some azaleas seen en-route, or tsutsuji in Japanese. Tsushima has its own variety of azealea called genzai tsutsuji, which bloom earlier in the spring. This is just a regular variety.

Looking down at the river part of the park; check out the Japanese people walking down below to get a sense of scale.

Here`s the promised stand of fuji!!

Up close, the flowers didn`t look like what I had imagined.

I loved how they hung over the framework.

The best find of the day, though, happened on the way back north. Just before the long Izuhara tunnel, on the left there was a mini-valley just festooned with fuji. It was breath-taking and wonderful, but I was in the middle of traffic and couldn`t stop to take a picture.

Also on the way back north, I --finally-- got a decent pictures of a `tombie,` or the particular type of kite-bird found around the island like seagulls in New England. They look regal but are really the stupidest bird I`ve ever seen.

On a different day, I went on a fuji-walk closer to home. I extended my favorite loop-walk to include a semi-abandoned (but occasionally mowed) monument-park tucked away in Nishidomari, the next village over. I hadn`t been there in over a year but remembered seeing a latticework trellis like the one at the southern river-park. Here`s a photo-montage from the whole walk--

"Koi-nobori," the giant fish flag/kites hung out on strings in late April and early May. They`re for kodomo-no-hi ("Children`s Day" but in practice "Boys` Day") on May 5th, or 5/5. Families hang them out if they have a son who is turning 5 years old. (Girls get their own day on March 3, or 3/3).

A close-up of the koi-nobori:

Someone`s potted fuji climbing up a nearby electric pole.

Hitotsubatago flowers! ...there are many planted around Kamitsushima.

This is such a typical Kamitsushima scene. Well, a typical Tsushima scene: fishing boat. ocean. mountains.

Here`s the semi-abandoned/mowed-twice-a-year momument-park sign.

...and the monument with the ode/poetry to the Showa Emperor. Hitotsubatago flowers behind.

I was correct in thinking that the trellis-ed plant was fuji, and it was in full bloom! ...definetely a different variety than the plant in the southern river-park, though; the blossoms were multi-layered, almost rose-like.

Gorgeous, gorgeous. Amazing scent, too, much stronger than the other variety.

(note the picnic table in the background ^^)

Underneath the `canopy` of flowers and foliage, the fuji had a serious system of branches. The main vine up to the trellis was pretty tough-looking, too.

Some more hitotsubatago on the way out--

Continuing up the big hill to Kami-so, a large ryokan-type hotel place (sans onsen, sadly), there`s a cute little hidden-away path around the coast to the Nishidomari beach. One of my favorite coastal walkways in Tsushima.

...and continuing up the road from Nishidomari to the Muida Beach area, there`s a lot of tropical-style plant life.

...with red soil which the residents say produces the best local produce. There are strata-ed vegetable gardens along this strip of coast.

...like this...

Interesting bird life in spring, too. This bird has a white body and an orange head!

I love the color of red earth, but this patchy, dried grass along the side of the road always reminds me of Cousin It.

Cousin It and family.

...and, finally, passing the Russian monuments and getting to the Muida Beach over-look area. Just gorgeous.

I tried to take a picture from behind my sunglasses to reduce the glare and get a better blue-green water tone... didn`t quite work, but it kind of made this picture look like a faded old photograph.

I love the architecture of these houses-for-rent near the beach. The white walls with dark beams make me think of pictures I`ve seen of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Oh, and I`m loving the new green leaves, too. Not all deciduous trees in Tsushima drop their leaves in winter, so it`s fun to look out at the mountainsides in spring, which now have patterns of new green, old green, evergreen, and some plants that can`t make up their minds.