Hydrangeas, Blooming in the Rainy Season

The rainy season has begun in Japan!
You can see beautiful hydrangeas in Japan this time of the year.
 

 
 
As you know, Japan has four distinct seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Between spring and summer, Japan has a rainy season that continues for about a month and a half.
Usually the start of the rainy season is announced for the Okinawa region at the beginning of May, and then it moves up the Japanese archipelago except Hokkaido. The timing of the rainy season is different for every area.
 
 
In our hometown of Nara or the Kansai region, it is usually announced at the beginning of June and ends in the middle of July.
However, the rainy season here hasn’t started yet this year, so it will come quite later compared with other years.
 
 
In the rainy season, you can enjoy hydrangea everywhere.
There are some popular spots to see colorful hydrangea in the Kansai region: Yatadera Temple in Yamato Koriyama, Hasedera Temple in Sakurai, Mimurotoji Temple in Uji and Kobe Municipal Arboretum in Kobe.
 

 
 
Yatadera Temple is especially famous for the beauty of its hydrangeas and is also called the “hydrangea temple”.
There are 60 different types of hydrangea and a total of 10,000 roots around Yatadera Temple.
Jizo statues at Yatadera Temple are also familiar to locals. The round shape of the hydrangea flower looks like the sacred gem which Jizo statues hold in their hands.
 

 
 
Access to Yatadera:
From Kintetsu Koriyama station (Kintetsu Railway):
Take bus bound for Yatadera and alight at the end of the line.
There are extra buses running from Kintetsu Koriyama Station and JR Horyuji Station in June.