Miyagawa Area Archive

This year’s fireworks festival in Ise City will be held on Saturday July 16 along the Miyagawa River (see this map). If you are planning a visit to Ise on Saturday, it would be a great way to spend the night in along with many locals and visitors alike. Please see the details below:

Date: Saturday, July 16
(In the event of heavy rain, high winds or the river is too high because of excessive rain, the festival will be postponed until July 17th or July 18th. If the festival cannot be held on July 17th or July 18th, it will be rescheduled in September.)

Time: approximately 19:25 to approximately 21:15.

How to get there:
There will be a shuttle bus from both Ujiyamada Station (Bus Stop #3) and Ise-City Station (Bus Stop #2) to the festival location for ¥180 (for adults) or ¥90 (for kids) between 17:00 and 19:30. Return trips will run from the festival location back to both train stations beginning at 20:00. The shuttle will depart every 30 minutes.

Where to watch:
There are many large areas along the river near Miyagawa Tsutsumi Park where anyone can watch for free. And in addition to the free areas, there is a special “up close and personal” area that is lined with tarps along the upper banks of the river. If you are interested in watching the fireworks from this area, you need to buy a ticket in advance. For more information about that, please check this site (sorry, Japanese only).

Every year, over 220,000 people visit Ise City to attend this festival. I hope this year, you have the chance to experience this great summer event. I hope to see you there!

It looks like this weekend will be the peak time for cherry blossoms (Sakura) in Ise City. The following pictures of Miyagawa Tsutsumi Park’s cherry trees were taken yesterday (April 6th), but I saw the same trees today—less than 24 hours later—and the blossoms were already much bigger and much more colorful. The warm weather in the last few days has really jump-started the Sakura season!

For me, cherry blossoms have always been a symbol hope and renewal and and reminder that no matter what has happens during the year, spring always comes. I am sure that I am not the only one who feels this way; I think for many Japanese people, whether young or old, this is a magical time of year. And this year, considering the recent earthquake and tsunami and the seemingly endless stream of difficult news from the north, this year’s Sakura season brings a special meaning for many of us.

There are many places people can view cherry blossoms in Ise City. If interested in finding a place to view Sakura, please refer to this site to find more information.

In addition to the many parks and designated areas within Ise City to view Sakura, I personally like to view the many scattered wild cherry trees that dot the hills and mountainsides around the city. To me, they make the whole mountain softer and more colorful. The colorful pink blossoms clearly stand out amongst the many Japanese cedar trees making a usually beautiful scene even more special. 

If you are visiting Ise City, please take special note of the wild cherry trees along the mountain side to the south of the city. They are a special treat.

There will be a firework festival in Ise City on Saturday July 17 along the Miya River. If you are visiting Ise around on Saturday, please check it out—they are usually pretty good. The details are as follows:

“58th Miyagawa Firework Festival”

Date: July 17, Saturday
(If there is heavy rain, high winds or the river is too high because of excessive rain, the festival will be postponed until July 18th or July 19th. In the case that none of these days are suitable, the festival will be rescheduled to either September 11th or 12th.)

Time: approximately 19:25 to approximately 21:15.

How to get there:
There will be a shuttle bus from both Ujiyamada Station (Bus Stop #3) and Ise-City Station (Bus Stop #2) to the festival location for ¥180 (adults) and ¥90 (kids) between 17:00 and 19:30. Return trips will run from the festival location back to both train stations beginning from 20:00. The shuttle will depart every 30 minutes.

Where to watch:
There is free space along the river near Miyagawa Tsutsumi Park where anyone can watch for free. If you are interested in watching from their special sheeted area, you need to buy a ticket in advance. For further information about that, please check this site (sorry, Japanese only).

I wish I could say, “see you there…” but sadly and Ironically, I have to be away from Ise because my dog is very afraid of fireworks!

If you are visiting Japan in the springtime, you may be lucky enough to visit during cherry blossom season, the annual and somewhat unofficial symbol of spring. I don’t know the exact reason why, but traditionally, Japanese people go a little crazy around sakura season. We love to see cherry trees, photograph them, have parties under them, buy things that have cherry blossom pictures pasted on them and even take long journeys to discover them.

If you have visited Japan in the springtime or if this spring marks your first visit, you will find a huge array of goods and meals that are packaged in pink, the color that represents the sakura blossoms. We just go crazy about anything and everything related to sakura and if you have been here in the spring before, you know what I mean.
Ise, of course, is no exception. There are many of these annual works of art along the Isuzu River if you are visiting Naiku. Or if you are traveling by car, another wonderful place is along the Miya River near Miyagawa Tsutsumi Park (宮川堤公園). I will post a link to an Ise City map that can help you with specifics and for more detailed information, I recommend a google or yahoo map to really zoom in on where to go.

http://www.ise-kanko.jp/english/html/map/map.html

Many of the shops and restaurants in Ise offer special goods and meals for this season. The Okage-yokocho area near Naiku usually closes down by 5 o’clock in the evening but during this season and, perhaps, until the middle of April depending on the weather, some areas along the Isuzu River are lighted in the evening giving visitors the chance for some beautiful viewing after sundown. The following link is in Japanese, but you can see a few images in order to get a better understanding of what I am writing about!

http://www.okageyokocho.co.jp/html/sakuramaturi.html
Some of cherry blossoms in Ise have already bloomed but we are certainly not at the peak just yet. If you are visiting Japan or hopefully Ise in the next few weeks, please enjoy this beautiful and very “Japanese” season! I hope to post more sakura pictures in the coming days.