Up To My Knees In A Vermilion Sea

As you may have guessed by now, in Japan no flower is safe from being planted together en masse, in order to deliver total sensory overload at the appointed moment. It’s no surprise that cherry blossoms, wisteria and azaleas all vie to attract record crowds as they burst into bloom, but who knew that lesser-known denizens have their own theme parks too?

Last week I went with some Japanese friends to Kinchakuda, a flower park near Koma Station, and the spidery red lilies did not disappoint! These members of the amaryllis family are called higanbana – “equinox flowers” – because in Japan they bloom just as summer slips into autumn, at the moment when the night becomes the same length as the day.

 

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.