This Year's Yuzu Options for the Winter Solstice

Three yuzu fruit are placed in the bath on the winter solstice. The cloth bag of yuzu and the packaged bag of yuzu peel is from Tokyu department store. It was sold in the vegetable section of their basement food department.

The net bag of yuzu is from our neighborhood grocery store. It was sold in the fruit section along with the paper of explanation. Kabocha or Japanese pumpkin is eaten on the winter solstice.

Here are the displays at Tokyu Department Store:

Yuzu bath products. Sorry, fuzzy photo.

Shishiyuzu

Yuzu in cloth bags for the bath.

Cut kabocha. I have never seen it sold like this. I like it! Kabocha is very hard to cut. Kabocha is rock hard!

Sample of a recipe with kabocha and adzuki beans.

Click on the labels below for more posts. Especially yuzu.

University of California--yuzu

Winter Solstice & Eclipse

We were supposed to be able to see the eclipse here in the evening. It was cloudy and rainy where we live, so there was no moon viewing for us. It was the winter solstice and we did what we usually do.

Check this post and this one to see what we do on the winter solstice.

Click on the label below for posts about yuzu.

Equinox

The spring equinox is a national holiday. Read more about it by clicking on the link below. The label below will take you to posts about the autumn equinox, too.

The cherry blossoms at our park are about to bloom. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Kids Web Japan--Vernal Equinox Day

Shuubun Treat

Today is the autumn equinox or shuubun in Japanese. It is actually a school holiday and a work holiday for some people. Today is ohigan, a day when spirits come back. The big red kanji on the paper label says ohigan.

This is the plastic box without the paper label. It is marked with its own label. It tells us that the box contains ohagi.

This is ohagi. It is a azuki bean and rice treat. It is eaten on ohigan. Check the next post for a close-up.

Autumn Equinox

This grass and pampas grass are used as autumn decorations. This picture was taken the 10th. Today was a beautiful, sunny day, too.

A Welcome Sign of Spring

It is cold and rainy today in Tokyo, Japan. It is also a school holiday. Students here get a day off for the spring equinox, the first day of spring!

We didn't have to go far to see a sign of spring. Can you see what we found on the wall of the house? It was just outside the door on our balcony.

It is an egg case. Hundreds if not thousands of praying mantis will come out this spring. They are more than welcome in our garden!

Spring Equinox Bloom Report

Today was the spring equinox. It was a holiday for Little Brother and Papa. Big Sister graduated from junior high yesterday and will start high school the first week in April. So she was off anyway. The sakura or cherry blossoms will probably be finished by the time school starts again. Today, they were still tight in the bud. They will bloom here in Tokyo sometime in the next two weeks.

Kids Web Japan-- spring equinox

There is new growth on these bushes called Red Robin in English.

This wall of flowers is blooming. I don't know what they are, though.

The momokiku are about to bloom.

These are blooming, but I'm not sure what they are. Let me know if you know.

This Chinese Spirea near a neighbor's driveway is blooming.

The magnolia trees along the main road have been blooming for a while.

Visit to the Cemetery, Later, Lunch at Big Boy

Yesterday was the Fall Equinox. It is a time when people visit cemeteries to clean their ancestral gravesites. Baba and Aunt had gathered everything together; clippers, flowers, incense, lighter, small broom, water bucket, scrub brushes, and garbage bags. Everyone went to the car. I grabbed an extra pair of clippers and the pruner. Last time we went, Baba asked us to prune the tree next to the gravestone.

I was the last one to the car. I noticed that no one had put a plate of salt outside the gate. As I got in, I asked about it, and seeing Baba and Aunt comfortably sitting in the car, I ran back to the house to prepare the dish. I put salt into a small bowl and then covered it with saran wrap. I left it on the wall outside the gate before getting back into the car. Baba said "thank you" many times.

The cemetery was crowded. People smiled and greeted us as we passed along the stone walk. Big Sister clipped the bushes and Little Brother scrubbed the stones. Baba sat in a folding chair. The kinmokusei was blooming so we didn't prune it. Papa lit a handful of incense and put it in the incense holder. Aunt forgot to bring an offering of Jiji's favorite tea. I'm sorry I couldn't take pictures at the cemetery. My family considers it taboo. (Find the post for August 29th and you can see a picture of a family plot behind a house. Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

We ate lunch out. Before going through the gate when we got home, Papa unwrapped the dish and threw salt on each of us. Baba then took the bowl and threw a pinch of salt on the front and back of him. When we went to the front door we saw that Aunt had left the keys in the lock! Good thing we have a gate that locks!

We went to Big Boy restaurant for lunch. When I was growing up in Texas, we had a Kip's Big Boy restaurant in my town.





Looks like the same Big Boy we had.




At many family restaurants here, there are sinks at the entrance for customers to wash their hands.





Instead of writing our order down, the waiter used this. He punched in codes for our orders and it figured it all out. They've had this device in Japan for at least 18 years.




I don't think you would see this at an American restaurant. Stacks of ashtrays.
I'll show you more pictures later.

Chestnut Season

Today is the Fall Equinox. Some chestnuts have already been harvested from the trees down the street.




There are still many on the trees.




There is a "garden" of begonias near the chestnut trees.




Speaking of potted plants, here is a taro plant in a white plastic pot (see the September 7th post "Elephant Ears?") I saw this potted taro at a vegetable shop.