Japanese Maple leaves are one of the most symbolic images of autumn for Japanese people. Chestnuts are used in lots of autumn food (for more details please read my chestnut post), but maple leaf patterns are the shape most often featured in autumn designs.
Mishima Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Shizuoka, Japan. The Kinmokusei tree has been designated as a natural monument of Japan since 1934. Kinmokusei usually blossoms in the middle of September in Mishima Shrine. Please read Kinmokusei post for more information.
Firefly squid live in deep sea, and I don’t think they can be found around the U.S. As far as around Japan, they can be found mainly in the Sea of Japan. There are about 1000 bioluminescent organs on each firefly’s body and release beautiful blue light. Firefly squid is only 2, 3 inches long at maturity, but they are delicious. 😛 Japanese people enjoy eating them very much. There is a firefly squid museum, and you can touch them alive in spring. There is a sign on the tank “please do not eat them”. lol
An early spring special for Starbucks in Japan is sakura (cherry blossom) strawberry flavor. They have both latte and frappuccino versions that come with sakura strawberry flavor sauce, sakura strawberry whipped cream and sakura strawberry shaved chocolate. Japanese people get excited about seasonal limited time items, and these are only available for one month until 3/15/16.
From September through October is the season to harvest chestnuts in Japan. While chestnuts are not particularly popular in the U.S., they are very popular in Japan. We have many different ways to prepare chestnuts. They can be simply roasted, mixed in with rice and cooked together, baked into either European style cakes or Japanese style sweets, etc.
The Rice harvest in Japan comes in the fall. Rice from the new crop (新米 or shinmai) is a bit different from rice harvested pervious year and stored (古米 or komai), although this does not mean that the new rice is necessarily better. New rice is stickier and softer though, and also looks whiter and shinier, so it is definitely more popular. If kept properly rice will remain good for more than a year, and some people actually prefer old rice over new. It depends on what you are making, some dishes taste better with older rice. The rice from two years ago is called kokomai (古古米), the rice from three years ago is kokokomai (古古古米), etc. For every year that passes, the name will have extra “ko”.
“Kinmokusei (金木犀)” is a tree whose blossoms have the most amazing fragrance; at least I think so. 😉 Kinmokusei blossoms are orange and bloom from the end of September through October in Tokyo area. This tree was introduced from China, and I have not seen it in the U.S. Kinmokusei is deciduous, and almost all Kinmokusei trees in Japan are male. There is another version of this tree called “Ginmokusei (銀木犀)”. Ginmokusei blossoms are white instead of orange. I have seen Ginmokusei trees in the U.S., but to me their fragrance is not as good as Kinmokusei. I wish I could attach the fragrance of Kinmokusei along with this photo for you.
