Side note, The Kairakuen Ume Festival
- Marcos Regalado
- Feb 5, 2021
- 4 min read
Every year, in the capital city of Mito in Ibaraki, many people from around Ibaraki and other prefectures flock to Kairakuen to admire the beautiful plum blossom trees. The Ume Festival or Plum Blossom Festival, happens every year and every year it is a beautiful and joyous event. The event goes on from mid-February until the end of March. There are so many events and fun activities at this festival for everyone to enjoy. But this year, we have corona looming over us and destroying fun events left and right. What will happen to this beautiful and delightful event this year?
A lot of Plum Trees
If you haven't been to Kairakuen yet, I highly recommend checking it out. Especially during the plum blossom season. Kairakuen has a ton of plum trees around the park. When they are in bloom, it is really a beautiful sight to behold. The park also has a bamboo forest, a shrine and an old Japanese style house that you can check out which used to belong to the daimyo (feudal lord) of Ibaraki a long time ago. You can check all of this out during the festival and have delicious festival food while walking around. You have your average festival yatais at the park. Takoyaki, fries, yaki soba, the usual. Sometimes, special food trucks come in, usually on the weekends, and if you see a truck that says "Chashu Burger" on it, go and try one of those burgers. You will not be disappointed.
The Plum Wine Tasting Event
I have gone to the ume festival every year and every year I have had a good time. I usually participate in the plum wine tasting event where you can try plum wines from all around Ibaraki and all over Japan. There are so many different flavors to try that I have yet to try all the plum wines that are offered in this event. I have tired yogurt plum wine before and it was delicious. All the plum wines that have brandy in them are winners in my eyes. A few years ago, I took a friend of mine to this tasting and he fell in love with the ginger plum wine. It is a delicious and fun event. I do however come out of this tasting unsteady on my feet every year so be prepared for that. Unfortunately, this year I am 90% sure that this event is cancelled. There is no way they will have hundreds of people in a tent trying different bottles of plum wine with a pandemic raging. I really don't see how they can adhere to social distancing rules when hundreds of people are drinking under one tent. If this event is cancelled this year and you still want to drink some plum wine, you can buy a bottle at any of the souvenir shops in the park. I recommend the 100 Years Plum Wine, it is quite tasty and smooth. Not really sure if it really is a 100 years old though.
Very Beautiful
At the time of writing this, Ibaraki is currently under its own state of emergency until February 7th. If the state of emergency is extended, I believe the whole festival will be cancelled. But according to some Japanese colleagues of mine, the governor of Ibaraki has no intention of extending the state of emergency. Also, the cases in Ibaraki seem to be slowing down. We will just have to wait till the 7th to see what happens. If the festival is cancelled, it would be a crying shame. Especially since there is going to be a special event this year that has never happened in the history of the Plum Festival.
Update As of February 5th, it has been announced that the state of emergency will be extended till March 7th for Tokyo and 8 other prefectures. Ibaraki is not on that list since we have our own state of emergency. Cases were really low on the 5th in Ibaraki so it looks like the state of emergency may end soon.
Egg on my face update
So yeah, it was extended. The state of emergency in Ibaraki will be extended till February 28th. I am sure this will effect the festival so make sure you check the festival website.
Picture from the TeamLab website
TeamLab, if you don't know them, is a digital art team that has created famous digital works of art in Tokyo. They have their own gallery which the wife and I wanted to check out in 2020 but as I have said many times, corona destroyed all our plans. TeamLab is planning on coming to the Plum Festival this year and they are setting up a night forest digital art show event from February 13th till January 21st. I am really looking forward to this event but I am not sure if it will still be happening as of this time. If the event is still going on as scheduled, it looks really awesome. I have heard nothing but good things about TeamLab so I am really excited about this event. I am glad I can share this information with my fellow Ibarakians and hope you are all able to enjoy this event as well. I do plan on going to the plum festival sometime in February but most likely will try to avoid going on the weekend.
This really is a great festival and this year seems like it is going to be really special. If you do plan on attending this event, I just want to say to have fun, try the delicious festival food. drink some plum wine and stay safe. I really do hope you can check out this beautiful festival. Who knows, you might see me there, admiring the plum tress while sipping on some 100 year plum wine.
Enjoy!
For more information on the festival, check out their website:
And for more information on the TeamLab event, check out their website:
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