Twentythree

It’s time to go out and see the ume.

Pretty much as soon as the new year starts, people in Japan start looking ahead to sakura season, and with good reason, as the cherry blossoms are Japan’s most famous flowers. They’re not the country’s only beautiful flora, though, and if you want to head out and see some breathtaking blossoms without waiting for winter to wrap up, we’re getting into the best time of year to see ume, or plum blossoms.

Plum blossoms tend to start blooming in late January or early February, depending on the exact variety, with colors ranging from white to soft pink to a reddish purple. And while you won’t find quite as many high-profile spots for plum blossom viewing as you will for their cherry counterparts, there are a number of great places to see the ume, even as day-trip excursions from downtown Tokyo.

For example, there’s Hana Biyori, a flower park managed by the same company that runs the nearby Yomiuriland amusement park in Tokyo’s western Tama district. Though it’s less than 30 minutes from Shinjuku Station in the Tokyo city center, there are roughly 200 plum trees to admire on the Hana Biyori grounds, with their flowers expected to be at their most beautiful this year from February 20 to 27. That timing overlaps nicely with Hana Biyori’s nighttime Hana Akari light-up event…

…and there will also be plum scents added to the outdoor bath Hana Biyori’s on-site onsen hot spring facility, Kakeinoyu, if you want to rest and warm yourself up after around while there still might be a bit of a winter chill in the air.

▼ Hana Biyori, by the way, is also right next to Yomiuriland’s brand-new Poképark Kanto Pokémon amusement park section.

Heading in the opposite direction from downtown Tokyo will instead take you to Mukojima Hyakkaen, across the Sumida River and a bit north from the Asakusa neighborhood.

Hyakkaen, which means “Garden of a Hundred Flowers,” was created by a merchant who planted 360 plum trees on the property in the late Edo period, and became a gathering place for artists and poets.

So though the Tokyo Skytree, Japan’s tallest structure and a marvel of modern engineering, can be seen poking up behind the trees, Hyakkaen retains a traditional feel, and during its Ume Fetival, which runs from February 7 to March 1 this year, visitors can compose poems to leave behind for others to read, take part in a relaxed tea ceremony (February 14 and 15), and enjoy watching traditional dance performances (February 8 and 22).

For those willing to venture outside the Tokyo city limits, though, one of the best places to see plum blossoms in east Japan is the town of Atami, on the coast of Shizuoka Prefecture.

Atami Baien (Atami Plum Garden) boasts 468 plum trees, but the even more impressive number is that they represent 60 different varieties. So not only do they make for an immersive environment of flowers, because the different ume have different blossoming times, the viewing season here is especially long. As shown in the video below, Atami Baien kicked off its Ume Festival all the way back in the second week of January, but the flowers are still going strong, and the festivities, which include events such as open-air footbaths and free amazake sweet non-alcoholic sake, depending n the day, will continue until March 8.

Compared to the other two locations, Atami is a fair bit farther from Tokyo, but it’s reachable in less than 40 minutes if you take the Shinkansen, and once you factor in the delicious green tea culture attractions that Shizuoka also offers, it definitely starts to feel like a train ride worth taking.

Related: Hana Biyori, Kakeinoyu, Mukojima Htyakkaen, Atami Baien
Source: PR Times, @Press, PR Times (2)
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, @Press, PR Times (2, 3)
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Casual Japanese restaurant chain creates a new genre of pork cutlet bowls.

Broadly speaking, katsudon (pork cutlet bowl) comes in two varieties. There’s tamagotoji katsudon, in which the cutlet is sort of wrapped in egg…

…and then there’s sauce katsudon, in which a special sauce, tasting kind of like a sweeter Worchester, is drizzled over the cutlet.

But now, here comes Japanese restaurant chain Fuji Soba with a brand-new category of pork cutlet bowl: ice cream katsudon.

Yep, that’s a pouch of confectioner Lotte’s Coolish drinkable ice cream being squeezed onto the cutlet, and specifically the brand’s whipped cream flavor. We suppose you could argue that this makes the Coolish Whipped Cream Katsudon, as it’s officially called, a variation on sauce katsudon, but it also has the egg accompaniment that you’d get in a traditional tamagotoji katsudon, so this new dish really is an unprecedented hybrid.

If all this talk of Fuji Soba putting ice cream in unexpected places sounds sort of familiar, it’s because this is actually the chain’s second time collaborating with Coolish, as for a limited time in 2024 they offered vanilla Coolish-enhanced chilled soba noodles.

▼ It wasn’t a simpler time, it was just a time that was crazy in a different way than now.

Between the two of them, though, ice cream makes more sense as a topping for katsudon than it does for soba, since there are sweet notes to katsudon sauce, whereas soba broth is more of a salty/savory/fish stock kind of thing. Fuji Soba says that the addition of ice cream adds to the richness flavor and decadence of the meal.

The ice cream itself isn’t too visually shocking either, since its color sort of blends into the white of the egg.

However, since we’re in uncharted culinary territory here, Fuji Soba serves the katsudon with the pouch of Coolish on the side, so that you can add whatever you feel is the appropriate amount, as well as choose whether you want to squeeze the ice cream right into the bowl or add little dollops to individual morsels after you’ve picked them up with your chopsticks. The chain’s official recommendation, though, is to use half of the ice cream pouch for the katsudon, with the remaining half ostensibly to be enjoyed by itself as a dessert.

The iconoclastic nature of this dish, so crazy it might work or perhaps just so crazy, means that it’s only being served at a limited number of Fuji Soba restaurants, in limited quantities, and for a limited time. The 770-yen (US$5) Coolish ice cream katsudon is available from now until February 28 at the Akasaka, Ikebukuro, and Gotanda Fuji Soba branches, all in downtown Tokyo, with a total of 10 available per day at each location on a first-come, first-served basis.

Related: Fuji Soba location list
Source: Lotte
Top image: Fuji Soba
Insert images: SoraNews24, Lotte (1, 2)
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The green mermaid shakes up the menu with a limited-edition twist on a classic drink.

With less than two weeks to go until Valentine’s Day, Starbucks is vying for our attention with a new limited-edition beverage called Sweet Milk Chocolate. Specially designed to align with the Japanese custom of gifting chocolate on Valentine’s Day, this new offering is a drink you’ll want to gift yourself, with its three-layer construction creating beautiful hues…and multiple tiers of flavour.

Keen-eyed Starbucks fans might notice that the drink looks similar to another on the menu, and that’s because it’s actually a new twist on the classic Sweet Milk Coffee. Instead of containing coffee though, this new drink contains a rich and creamy base, made from fresh cream and white chocolate-flavoured syrup, which is then topped with milk, and finished with a creamy layer of cocoa.

The resulting three-layered beverage lets you enjoy the richness of cocoa and its mellow sweetness in alternating strengths as you drink it. The deliciously creamy, milk chocolate flavours are said to give the beverage a dessert-like feel that will give you the same satisfying sense of joy as biting into an expensive Valentine’s Day chocolate.

On sale from 3 February at Starbucks stores around Japan, the new drink will be sold in a Tall size for 579 yen (US$3.74) for takeout or 590 yen for dine-in, and will only be available while stocks last.

Source, images: Press release
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Some employers want to flip the script to indirectly get rid of workers they don’t want, company says.

In Japan, quitting your job can be psychologically complicated. Employment at many companies is indefinitely very long-term, without scheduled regular meetings to discuss whether or not to re-up the working arrangement, which also means fewer built-in opportunities to organically tell your boss, “I think it’s time for me to move on to something else.” Japanese culture also generally prefers to avoid direct conflict if it doesn’t offer any benefits over a calmer approach, and with most Japanese people not craving the position of being the center of attention, making a big-spectacle “You can take this job and shove it!” declaration in front of everyone in the office doesn’t hold much appeal, even to most pretty disgruntled workers.

That’s why the company Momuri got its start. A play on words with the Japanese phrase “Mou muri” (“I can’t take this anymore”), Momuri is a job-quitting proxy service. For a fee, generally between 12,000 and 22,000 yen (US$77 and US$142), Momuri will inform your employer that you’re leaving your position and also handle any associated paperwork or other correspondence. And to be clear, Momuri’s operations don’t include anything about setting you up with your next job. They’re just there to get you out of the one you currently have.

It’s an unusual service, but one uniquely suited to Japanese society and cultural values. However, while Momuri’s business plan is centered on being approached by individuals who want to quit their jobs, the company says that it also regularly gets contacted by employers who want to end their working relationships with their employees.

In a post on its official Twitter account, Momuri recently said:

“We regularly receive requests of ‘We want to make one of our employees to quit, so would it be possible to have you to contact them on the phone?’”

「うちの社員を辞めさせたいのでその社員に電話をかけていただきたいのですが、対応可能でしょうか？」

定期的に来ます。

— 退職代行モームリ (@momuri0201) January 31, 2026

Though Momouri’s services are designed to help workers navigate quirks of Japanese work culture, those same services could, in theory, also be beneficial to employers on the other side of the tricky situations. Downsizing because of an economic turndown is generally frowned upon in Japanese society, and firing employees for anything less than deliberate malicious conduct is avoided too. The result is that, unless an employee is a complete screw-up, employers often feel obligated to keep them on the payroll, even if the company’s overall performance could probably be improved by firing them and restaffing the position. Of course, all those stigmas, and any potential compliance bylaws about letting the employee go, disappear if the employee themself is the one making the decision to walk away from the job. So, in theory, if the management at Company X wants to get rid of an employee, but cultural or legal concerns make that difficult to do, having a job-quitting proxy float the idea of quitting to the unwanted worker could neatly solve the company’s problems.

Of course, there are all sorts of ethical issues such tactics would raise, not the least of which is whether an employer having a third party contact a worker to make them consider quitting their job constitutes a form of workplace harassment. It’s worth noting that Momuri does not say that it has ever performed this service for employers, simply that it’s been asked to do so, and so it seems that the company has stayed focused on its role as a job-quitting poxy service, nota a firing proxy service.

Source: Twitter/@momuri0201 via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
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If you’re looking to get a head-start sorting your sakura looks, Gap Japan is ready too.

We’re getting down to the last few weeks before cherry blossoms season starts. In many people’s minds, spring hasn’t really started until Japan’s most famous flowers bloom, and so the event is often seen as an opportunity to put away your heavy winter coats and sweaters and bust out your lighter, more festively colored spring clothes.

Gap Japan is ready to help you start getting your cherry blossom wardrobe ready right now, though, with its Sakura Collection.

The Vintage French Terrycloth Sakura Gap Logo Zip-up Parka’s long name belies its much more succinct concept: a cozy parka with a beautiful cherry blossom graphic on the back, warm enough to help with the occasional chill of windy spring conditions, but not so heavy that it’ll make you sweat when the sun is out. It’s available in a pastel pink or subtly pink off-white, both of which are shades you’ll encounter actual Japanese cherry blossoms in.

They’re offered in both adult women’s and girls’ sizes (priced at 9,990 yen [US$64] and 6,990 yen), and if you’re looking for something to pair them with, there are matching-fabric sweat shorts (3,990/3,490 yen).

With spring also meaning the return of T-shirt temperatures, the Oversize Sakura Gap long-sleeved tee (5,990 yen) is an adult-size option, once again available in pink or white.

The pink palette is toned down for the men’s Sakura Gap hoodie (9.990 yen), though you could make the argument that the cherry blossom colors pop all the more in contrast to the colors surrounding them.

The same pattern also shows up on the pullover sweatshirts (men’s size 7,990 yen, boy’s size 5,990 yen)…

…and the guys’ sizes also have a short-sleeved T-shirt option (5,990/3,490 yen).

And last, the Sakura Gap socks, while officially listed as men’s and boy’s items (2,990/1,690 yen for a set of three pairs), look like they’d fit just as well on women and girls.

The Sakura Collection is available now at Gap Japan physical stores and through the company’s online store here.

Source, images: PR Times
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You don’t have to wait for spring to see this special kind of sakura.

Cherry blossoms, as just about everyone knows, are a symbol of spring in Japan. The exact timing of their arrival depends on which part of the country you’re talking about and that year’s specific weather patterns, but the sakura start to bloom between late March and early May, right, as shown once again in the latest cherry blossom forecasts.

But while all of that is true, it’s true specifically for the Somei Yoshino, the most common variety of cherry blossom tree. Japan has other kinds of cherry blossoms too, though, and for one of them, the Kawazu sakura/Kawazuzakura, cherry blossom season is starting this week.

The most famous place for Kawazuzakura, fittingly, is the town of Kawazu, part of Kamo District in Shizuoka Prefecture. This coastal town, as seen in the video above, has a riverside road called Nanohana Road with a canopy of cherry blossom boughs arching over it, and they’re predicted to come into bloom by the end of this week, according to the latest report from Japanese meteorological organization Weathernews, which has released a Kawazuzakura forecast map.

The map can be a little hard to visually process at first, since the ocean off the southern coast of Japan is shown in pink, but it contains the following dates and places.

● Kawazuzakura Namiki Nanohana Road (河津桜並木　菜の花ロード)
Kawazu, Shizuoka Prefecture
Start of blooming: February 6
Full bloom: February 22
● Todaiyama (東大山)
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture
Start of blooming: February 21
Full bloom: March 1
● Nishihirahatake Park (西平畑公園)
Matsuda, Kanagawa Prefecture
Start of blooming: January 30
Full bloom: February 17
● Oi Yume no Sato (おおいゆめの里)
Oi, Kanagawa Prefecture
Start of blooming: February 6
Full bloom: February 22

▼ Kawazuzakura Namiki Nanohana Road

Also in Shizuoka, the Todaiyama area of the city of Hamamatsu includes a section of the Hanakawa River lined with more than 400 Kawazuzakura trees. As in many places, the bloom at about the same time as the bushes of yellow flowers called nanohana, and the contrast between the pink and yellow petals, especially on a sunny day with a clear blue sky as a backdrop, makes for a striking combination.

▼ Todaiyama Kawazuzakura

It’s about two and a half hours by train from downtown Tokyo to Kawazu or Hamamatsu, so they’re doable as day trips, despite being two prefecture over from Japan’s capital. You can also see the early-arrival cherry blossoms in Tokyo’s southern neighbor, Kanagawa Prefecture, as two parts of the Ashigarakami District, the towns of Matsuda and Oi, also have good Kawazuzakura spots, Matsuda’s Nishihirahatake Park…

…and Oi’s Oi Yume no Sato park.

Both of the Kanagawa locations also boast lines of sight to Mt. Fuji, and with winter often offering the clearest views of the mountain that’s so often hidden in clouds in other seasons, if luck is on your side you might get to see the cherry blossoms, nanohana, and Fuji all at once, and they’re both accessible from Tokyo in about two hours.

Related: Nishihirahatake Park official website, Oi Yume no Sato official website
Source: Weathernews
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Weathernews
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Perfect with your other ornaments or as a stand-alone complex.

I’m always a sucker for fusions of classical and modern Japanese arts, whether it’s woodblock prints of Nintendo characters or watches made from samurai armor. This latest one certainly fits the bill of combining an iconic work of anime with one of Japan’s most elegant traditional crafts.

On one hand, we have the manga and anime classic Ghost in the Shell and its scene-stealing walking tanks, the Tachikoma. These are robotic vehicles that use AI so that they can be both driven and operate autonomously, while also often grappling with the nature of their own existence.

On the other hand, we have Nabeshima ware, a form of porcelain that was so high in quality, it was originally only used as gifts for the shogunate and other feudal lords by the Nabeshima samurai clan from the 17th to 19th century. Even after the feudal system was abolished, the makers of Nabeshima ware and their descendants have carried on the painstakingly meticulous craft to this very day.

Put those two together, and you end up with this.

The Ghost in the Shell Tachikoma Nabeshima Ware will be sold by the porcelain brand Yoyoyo and crafted by the 351-year-old kiln Hataman. However, despite their many, many years of experience in ceramics, making a robot spider tank was an unprecedented challenge, so the modern digital modeling techniques of 224porcelain (creative partners for the Fist of the North Star shochu set) were also called upon.

A typical porcelain teapot would require four or five pieces to be attached together by hand, but a Tachikoma required 49 such joints. In addition, these machines have several very thin and precise parts, which are extremely difficult to maintain without distortion in the high temperatures of the kiln.

The creation of the shape is nothing short of a technical marvel, and the impressiveness is only heightened by the exquisite painting. Hataman’s artisans leave nothing to chance when adding the delicate lines that give these Tachikoma their ghosts.

Everything, from the stiffness of the brush bristles to the moisture content of the paint, is strictly controlled to give the precisely desired results.

There is very little room for error, and the slightest slip-up could ruin the immense work that already went into achieving the figure’s form. And yet, at the same time, the handmade strokes are imbued with humanity that can be seen in their finest details. It is a technique three and a half centuries in the making.

I say all this not only to celebrate the work of these incredible craftspeople, but to prepare you for the price. One Ghost in the Shell Tachikoma Nabeshima Ware figure will sell for 770,000 yen (US$5,000). Part of that price is also due to their scarcity since only 50 of them will be available for sale worldwide. Yoyoyo is currently accepting preorders and, as of this writing, some are still available. According to their website, they ship to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the USA, France, and Germany.

It’s certainly not cheap, but it’s hard to argue these works aren’t worth it. They both serve as examples of some of the best craftsmanship Japan has to offer and manage to breathe life into the lifeless, in the true spirit of Ghost in the Shell.

Source: Yoyoyo, PR Times
Images: PR Times
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