Sore Knee From Drivin

Momijigari

Fukuoka, island Ky ū sh ū . 8:30 am on a Saturday morning in mid-November and I'm brushing my teeth. My landlady, Mrs. Satoko, knocks on the bathroom door and ordering me to hurry, waiting for us in the street, he says. Five minutes later, I leave the house with his mother Mrs, Tomoko grandmother. The haste is due to the fact that we're going to the temple for RAIZAN Sennyoji momijigari and Mrs. Satoko does not want to be stuck in traffic.

What I'm talking about? The momijigari Japan is a traditional activity that consists in going, in autumn, Hunting for trees whose leaves take color very attractive, as the scarlet of the maples and the yellow of the ginkgo. Kari , in fact, translates to "hunt" and momiji is the Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ): there are hundreds of varieties, some of which reach 16 meters high, and often the shaft assumed hemispherical shape. In turn, the etymology of the word dates back to ancient momiji momizu term, which means red dye. By extension, the word also indicates the ninth lunar month.

The momijigari began as a pastime of the aristocracy Heian era (eighth to twelfth century AD.), And spread among other social classes in the Edo period, starting the seventeenth century. Today there are tens of millions of Japanese who move in search of autumn maples, purple, even going to Canada or Spain, in Extremadura. The major TV shows every day the best places to hunt, the RAIZAN Sennyoji Daihiohin is one of them has a huge old maple than four centuries, which explains the rush of my landlady. Plenty of time to park at a reasonable distance from the temple and we can walk without having to crowded, but at 10.30, when we leave the site he met with a queue of cars a couple of kilometers.

Hunting momiji begins in mid-September on the island of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the Japanese archipelago; the front of the red leaves are moving, then, to the south and reaches the southern islands at the end of November. The national tourism agency publish on its website a schedule that allows you to organize the movement in the right time.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2014.html

The most visited sites for Japanese tourists provides a guide to the colors of autumn , explaining such as trees change color, where and when. In addition to plant deciduous forests that cover a significant portion of the territory, especially popular are the gardens of Zen temples.

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/seasonal/seasons_2004autumn-winter/index.html

The momijigari is a hallmark of Japanese culture that truly unites people of all walks of life, lovers of poetry include up to tanka (poems of 31 syllables) of VII century to find references, scholars of aesthetics can be connected to the contemplation of maple leaves in search of beauty in the fleeting and ephemeral aspects of nature and the transience Apology derived from Buddhist metaphysics, and who attends the theater, both the N ō is the Kabuki, it may assist the representation of a traditional drama entitled Momijigari , some collect the maple leaves and then cook according to recipe for tempura whoever, if it is in a railway station and must purchase a gift for the guest who is waiting for him, you can buy some sweets inspired momiji .