Kamiyama Shinren Koen's Maple Leaf Festival, 11-25-2012

Well aren't I spoiled?! I went to Kamiyama, a mountain town about 40 minutes from here, to the Maple Leaf Festival. We had a lovely day, lots of outside fall activities. The sky was bright blue, there air was crisp and it was lots of fun. And there were beautiful trees scattered here and there. But... I'm from NY / New England.... so really, nothing can compare to green hills absolutely covered in red, orange and yellow sugar maples. It's not fair to even compare. But that's what I was raised with, and that, along with apple picking/eating (the best!) is what I think of as fall. I think the biggest difference - besides the size of the leaves - is that Japanese maples are planted and sugar maples grow naturally so they spread. You have to go to certain places to see Japanese maples whereas you can drive almost anywhere in NY / New England and be surrounded.

That being said, it was pretty and there were some very fun activities. A local produce market, as always. I had one of those 'what was I thinking!!' moments after splitting a box of drying persimmons with a lady who didn't want to buy them all. I guess I'm not a good judge of quantity. I figured there'd be maybe 20 in my half and drying them would be a fun thing to try. There must be 40 or 50... I have to get some rods or something to hang them from, and some string. But the biggest 'What!?' came when I found out you have to peel them first!!! I see them hanging outside houses and it looks like they have their peels on!!! I guess I don't have to do it all at once. Then I have to hope that the birds aren't going to ruin them one way or another....

The governor of Tokushima (who evidently loves festivals) was there to start things off and award some prizes to 2 girls who won a character drawing contest. We all (including the officials in suits) did a few little stretching exercises and then we went on a hike. Afterwards we made Christmas wreaths and Haruto decorated a pine cone. Then we saw a great concert with the Chinese cousin of the shamisen - the niko I think. During the concert we enjoyed some deliciuos bread that Toshiyuki (Naoko's husband) made in their bread machine (he's the cook in the family). So good! And some takoyaki. Next, onto the maple tree planting. The holes were already dug and the kids filled them in with soil. We also made plaques with which to label our tree. Each family (10 I think) was also given a maple sapling to take home and plant. Very nice. We stopped to go through a camelia maze that Naoko and I hadn't noticed when we were there last spring. (I just followed - I can't even figure out directions on a straight road.) There were log sawing contest and 'forest games' for older kids. We headed down the mountain tired and happy and admiring more maples on the drive.