Odawara is a city by the sea in Kanagawa, Japan, which is famous for, among other things, its foods, kamaboko and umeboshi and the drink umeshu. Kamaboko are fish cakes, umeboshi is pickled plum and umeshu is plum sake. Being famous for plum products, its beautiful in the early spring for its plum blossoms.
We went to two places in the city last Thursday, which was a national holiday in Japan. We rented electric bicycles near the beautiful Odawara Castle and set off up into the hills towards our first destination.
Odawara Flower Garden is a nice spot overlooking the city with a large greenhouse full of exotic plants which you can see for a small fee, a fantastic rose garden, great to see later in the year, and a lovely plum garden.
There was a small festival there, some food stalls and seating near the glasshouse and small performances in the plum orchard.
There were some people there, but not as many as previously, maybe because the blossoms have been a little late this year?
Anyway, we wandered around the park and the blossoms were pretty much fully open, and the day was warm and sunny.
We got back on our bikes and set off down the hill through the newly built park, to a nice ramen restaurant, and then on to the main area for seeing blossoms, the Soga Plum Grove. Its on the opposite side of the valley which Odawara spreads over and its the quieter side of the city. The plum orchards are all over the place there; from small ones in peoples back gardens, medium sized ones in temples and along roads, to the large ones, like the main Soga plum orchard.
We first cycled to the temple, Zuiunji. There was no one there! Which was a surprise. Usually there are small events on for the plum blossom season, but as they bloomed late, all the entertainment was over. The temple grounds are small but beautiful and in a quiet area.
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Getting back on our bikes again, we cycled through small plum orchards through the quiet houses dotted around by the hills and to the Soga Orchards.
At the center of the plum blossoms, the usual row of food stalls and souvenir shops were here as were the crowds. We got some ice cream from the really delicious shop nearby, Odawara Bokujo Ice Kobo, bought a drink of Umeshu in the festival and went and sat down under the blossoms. There were many people there, but the orchards are so big, there is plenty of room to relax.
To enter either festival that we went to today is free. You can rent a bicycle like we did for 1000 yen, or take a bus to both places from Odawara station, or get a train to Iidaoka and walk to the flower garden and then the train to Shimosoga Station, although it can take some time unless you time the trains right.
Odawara in late February is a beautiful place and well worth going to see and smell the blossoms.
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