Of Japan’s three most celebrated landscape gardens, Kairakuen in Mito are the closest ones and they are located about two hours north of Tokyo. The other two are Kenroku-en in Kanazawa prefecture and Korakuen in Okayama prefecture. These ones in Ibaraki are famed for their ume (plum blossom) and yesterday I went there with a mate to see something which is a part of Japanese culture.

Overall, it was a beautiful day but the gardens weren’t fully in bloom and we only saw a few plum blossom trees. Anyway, this very un-rock & roll story pales into insignificance as the highlight was seeing lots of cute Japanese girlies clad in more traditional dress.

Plum blossom is basically a different shade of pink to the more famous cherry blossoms which are on another level altogether due to the many parties that go with them. Every year in early to mid-April thousands and thousands of people eat and get merry under the cherry blossom trees.