On March 16, Sunday, a sunny day with mild Spring weather, I went to the Yugawara Bairin “Feast of Plum” Festival 2014. It was the last day of the festival.

Due to it was the last day of the festival and the weather is great, there were traffic jams on the road. Though it was only a 3-kilometer distance, it took me more than 40 minutes to reach the Makuyama Park which is the main venue of the festival.

I was not so familiar with the place, so I simply followed the flow of the cars on the road, after I saw a sign read “800 meters to reach the park”, I decided to park my car in the nearest parking lot and walk to the park from there. The parking lot is managed by the government of Yugawara-cho, since my car is a normal-sized car, I was available to park my car for 300 yen.

Later when I entered the venue of the festival, I grabbed a flyer which tells me that there were multiple parking lots (parking lots no. 1 to no. 6) located along side of the road within the distance of 1 kilometers from the entrance of the venue, all of these parking lots are managed by Yugawara-cho. So I thought if I get some chance to visit the festival next year, it would be more convenient to park in the No. 5 or No. 6 parking lots as these two parking lots are more nearer to the location of the festival.

You can choose a transportation best suit your purpose such as grab a taxi or take a bus from the station as well as use a Park and Ride service.

The admission fee is 200 yen, I paid it at the entrance of the nevue. The price is generous and there are various discounts offered by the park such as free to enter if you a local resident of Yugawara-cho or coupon tickets for other facilities.

Once I entered the venue, I saw there were many plum trees and an event venue which is set on a round lawn place. There are about ten food stands running by the local residents in the venue. The following is a list of various types of stand in the venue.

・Point service ticket exchange place
・Hot handmade Udon and Soba noodles with delicious soup
・Local made wines and Japanese sake and plum liquor, etc.
・The specialty of “Plum Feast”: steamed bun using Japanese sake.
・Yugawara Dandan-style fried noodles
・Promotional items of Yugawara Yuru Character “Yutapon Five”
・Dried seafood of Gulf of Sagami
・Marmalade of made of the Chinese citron, jam made of the winter mandarin orange, plum jam, etc.
・Kanayamaji miso, wasabi pickles, leaf red peppers and pickled salt plums
・Citrus fruits, konjac, pickled plum, red ginger and Japanese leek, etc.
・Senbei made of sardine bones which contains abundance of calcium, salt pickled cuttlefish, rock seaweed, kombu tea, etc.
・Display and sales of artworks by Yugawara’s local ceramic and dyeing artists.
・Kibimochi rice cake, Karukan steamed bun and plum steamed bun, etc.
・Cell phone charms attached with Umesuzu, real leather coin purses and wallets, etc.
・Plum sables, plum cakes, orange cakes, handmade postcards, etc.
・Yugawara Bairin postcard bundles and stamps of flowers, etc.
・Plum soft ice cream

There is a Japanese proverb saying that “dumplings rather than flowers”, means people are more interested in the practical over the aesthetic, which fit my stance perfectly. However it is a good practice to pace around these interesting stands and look up for unique items that can be obtained only at here.

After I had my stomach became full, I left the event venue and walked toward the plum groves located at the slope area of the mountain.

There are approx. 4,000 plum trees either red plum or white plum planted in Yugawara Bairin (Groves of Plum) are in full blossom. The air smelt sweet with mild fragrance produced by the plum flowers. There are light illuminations during the night (admission free from 6pm to 8:30pm), you can enjoy a different face of the plum groves rather than day time.

During the Yugawara Bairin “Feast of Plum” festival, there were various events held at here.
Following list showed the various events during the festival which is printed on the flier of the event.

・Opening Ceremony Yugawara Onsen Geigi-no-mai (dance performed by geisha)
・Taiko (Japanese drum) performance by high school students
・Folk songs and Tsugaru Samisen collaboration
・Tone of Makuyama (Koto performance)
・The making of natural art
・The making of Kawaribina
・Talk reading of a folktale and the masterpiece
・Makuyama hiking
・Footbath for relaxation
・Photo exhibition of wild flower and wild bird of Mt. Makuyama
・Sightseeing photo exhibition
etc.

The above events are scheduled to be hold during early February to middle March of 2014. For next year’s schedule, please refer to the latest information.

Once the Feast of Plum festival is over, there will be various other events to be hold at Yugawara Onsen, such as Satsuki-no-sato, from early June to middle June; Hotaru-no-utage, from early June to middle June; Yukake Festival on Saturday, May 24; Opening of beach on Sunday, July 13.

Please come and enjoy these events!

* Please make sure the info you see is the latest in advance.