Hydrangea Season in Japan! Cycling Slice of Life & Garden Bike Tour of Kanazawa 🚲🪻🍦 金沢でサイクリング

Hydrangea Season in Japan! Cycling Slice of Life & Garden Bike Tour of Kanazawa 🚲🪻🍦 金沢でサイクリング

[Music] it’s June in Japan which means it’s hydrangea season I thought I would take you with me on a little bike cruise around kazawa this morning to see a temple known for its hydranges as well as a park filled with iris flowers and Bloom I’ll also show you where to get some SOA ice cream and take you to a bakery because there’s nothing better than cruising around to get Snacks by bike the sunrise is really early in Japan especially in the summer this was 4:30 in the morning and I’m not usually up this early but I thought it might be fun to do a chill ride before the sun really started heating things up this is our local uchinada train heading out shortly after I started my [Music] ride the temple I went to was honi Temple just Northeast of downtown Kaz in Morimoto it’s a Buddhist temple founded in 1294 it’s about 20 minutes by car from kazawa station and 3 km from the Jr moroto train station the temple is back here surrounded by peaceful rice fields since it was still pretty early I had the place all to myself and the Hy dang of bushes were really beautiful despite it not quite being peak season yet the rainy season in Japan is usually June and July here in Ishikawa prefecture it’s forecast to be around June 12th to July 24th the rainy season happens when cooler winds from the north mixed with Warm Winds from the south as the summer comes it’s called suyu or Plum rain because it’s the time when plums become ripe while increased rain and humidity might not be the most fun it’s said that hydranges look prettiest in the rain though not all the bushes were blooming yet during this visit I actually visited the same temple with some friends last year in late June and the hydranges were even more vibrant then here are some clips from around the temple in 2023 [Music] there were so many tiny cute frogs and these bright white hydranges were blooming next to the temple last [Music] year temples and shrines are great places to see this season’s most popular flower the hydrangea it’s called aisai in Japanese and there are over 100 different varieties based on the acidity of the soil the flowers will also be more blue or pink wow it’s so nice [Music] more alkaline in the soil the more pink they’ll be after we admired the flowers we got lunch at the nearby goyama Farm [Music] Cafe Not only was there a tasty soba set meal there was also soba flavored ice cream so big it was the first time I tried it and it tasted kind of like barley or buckwheat like a not too sweet kind of toasty flavor I really liked it back to the present day now I had actually wanted to visit the hydrange of Temple partly to take pictures of a seasonal postcard that I painted you might not know but in addition to cycling painting is also a passion of mine especially watercolor I have this monthly postcard Club where I paint a new postcard and a couple new stickers every month and I mail them in envelopes to people who have signed up around the world this month I had painted some little rat friends enjoying a rainy walk among the hydrangeas kind of like the scene here actually if you’re watching this in June still you can sign up for the Postcard Club at the Blue bike. Art and I’ll send you one of these cards in a sticker too I learned that blue Hy ranges can symbolize gratitude there’s a story about an emperor who was too busy and neglected the woman that he loved so he gave her some blue hydranges as a symbol of his apology and gratitude walking around the temple was really peaceful but there was another Garden in kazawa that I wanted to see [Applause] too from here I rode South towards kazawa cycling through some small neighborhoods and along quiet roads that followed Creeks toward the [Music] [Applause] city I climbed up to uyama park the hillside park on the as Riverside of downtown kazawa with great View down onto the city and even as far as the ocean on a clear [Music] day about halfway up Mount utsuyama there’s an Irish Garden called hoben there are three sections to this Garden the upper has terrac Japanese Iris beds the middle has both irises and a small stream and then the lower has a pond with irises growing in and around the water the garden has 200,000 Japanese irises of 100 different varieties as well as some hydranges if you can’t get enough at the temple it was a little later in the morning now so more people were at this Garden there’s something really nice about being in a park or a garden with other people Everyone is quiet and not rushed and you’re all just collectively enjoying nature together and appreciating the transient beauty of the Season something cool I learned about Irish flowers in Japan is that they’re called shu which is also the way that you pronounce the word for match or duel or even warlike spirit so on boy day which is now children’s day there was a tradition to take an iris bath a show Buu the long Iris leaves look like swords too and you put the flowers and the leaves in the bath while you soak this was supposed to help young boys grow up strong and become Samurai when I descended utsuyama I headed towards the ASO River and rode through the historic streets of the haash CH Chia tea District I’m getting hungry for a second breakfast but it’s 8:30 in the morning you would think that there would be a lot of bakeries open at 8:30 on a weekday but no there’s only one that is nearby that’s open another one that opens at 9:00 so I got to decide but if you’re coming later in the day there are lots and lots of bakeries if you can wait until like 10 or 11: a.m. while deciding where to go for a bakery treat I took some photos here in K Machi Chaya another tea District on the ASO River I love all the windows and the buildings on this [Music] street I decided to go to the closer Bakery since it was one I hadn’t been to yet they didn’t open until 9:00 a.m. but I didn’t have to wait too long this building had a bunch of lovely Ivy and hydrangeas surrounding it the bakery was called wataba and they specialize in these little steamed bread cupcakes filled with cream and fruit I got three flavors and I started following the ASA River home on the bike path blueberry raspberry cream cheese and fig were the three flavors that I got [Music] [Music] there’s no bench here or anything but I found a little shady spot another nice thing about having Zeb is that I can get three Muffins with the excuse that I’ll share with him so I’m going to take a bite out of three different muffins wow it’s like squishy and sticky and soft I think the raspberry one is my favorite it is just like custard inserted into a cake thing even though they look like muffins I don’t they’re not really muffins they’re like it’s like cake I was very good and resisted eating the whole thing so I could share with Zeb too thanks for coming with me on this cruise around town today I hope to see you in the next video [Music]

It’s June in Japan, which means it’s hydrangea season! I thought I would take you along on a little bike cruise around Kanazawa this morning to see Honkoji temple, known for its hydrangeas, as well as a park on Utatsuyama filled with iris flowers in bloom.
I’ll also show you where to get some soba ice cream, and take you to a bakery, because there’s nothing better than cruising around to get snacks by bike!

Ride and route data: https://www.strava.com/activities/11623213002
Join my Postcard Club: patreon.com/user?u=86397010
My watercolor art: https://thebluebike.art/

Here’s the hydrangea temple’s website: https://honko-ji.jimdofree.com/
the Iris Garden: https://visitkanazawa.jp/en/attractions/detail_50025.html And where we ate lunch: https://www.gokayama-nouen.com/

Jump to:
00:31 – early morning ride start
1:23 – Hotokuji Temple
2:20 – last year’s hydrangeas
3:10 – lunch & soba ice cream
3:39 – my postcard club
4:35 – sounds of nature
5:23 – Utatsuyama Park & iris garden
7:02 – Asano River
7:54 – bakery stop

🎙️ Want to keep up with the rest of our adventures? We have a podcast! : https://www.ramblingramsbothams.com Support my videos by becoming a channel member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHNUoxsMd-c5VM10ZbU331Q/join

🇯🇵 More videos about Japan Cycling here:
Bikepacking Japan’s Amaharashi Coast: https://youtu.be/VIFvovFUGB8 Cherry Blossom Bike Route: https://youtu.be/YqQJQW4w-64
Gravel Cycling in Wakayama Prefecture: https://youtu.be/weifAuHdJ0Q
Week-long Bike Tour Kanazawa to Matsumoto: https://youtu.be/OOgtL6N20mY

#金沢 #サイクリング #cyclingjapan #japancycling #kanazawa #hydrangea #ajisai #アジサイ #紫陽花 #卯辰山公園 #povcycling #花菖蒲 #cycling #lifeinjapan #japantravel #biketour #ramblingramsbothams #ishikawa #石川旅行