Latest news with #cherryblossom
Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Fantastic low and no-alcohol fizz
In April I took my 16-year-old stepdaughter south to see the cherry trees bloom. Not so far south — just to Mei Ume, the Japanese restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in London. Handcrafted paper cherry blossoms sprouted from the light fixtures in the elegant, high-ceilinged room, with its Chinese and Japanese art on the walls to match the blend of those two countries' cuisines on the menu. For Cherry Blossom Season, the head chef Peter Ho had concocted a series of delicious small plates, matched to cocktails based on Saicho Sparkling Tea. Mine contained Saicho Hojicha (a green tea made smoky by roasting over charcoal), as well as Hennessy XO and Grand Marnier. Nora, being slightly younger, had a mocktail with Saicho Jasmine, green apple puree and vanilla. Mine was good but hers, with the bite of that apple and the perfumed NoLo fizz, was better — and I don't even much like vanilla. • This article contains affiliate links that will earn us revenue This was a revelation. I already knew I liked the Saicho drinks (£17.99, — adding bubbles to the delicate aromas and structured tannins of good tea is a brilliant idea. A recent dinner with the teens involved us all sharing a magnum of Fortnum & Mason's Sparkling Tea (£45, Its lemon-peel and thyme flavours were a great complement to one-pot Basque chicken and, especially, an orange, fennel and radish salad. And pouring a magnum for four is a lot more fun than sharing a bottle between two while the young people dissolve their teeth in sugar-loaded soda pop. I am not giving up alcohol any time soon. But there is, as Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger points out, a pleasure balance. She is the co-creator of French Bloom, one of the best non-alcoholic sparkling wines on the market. She has made canny use of fine chardonnay grapes from Limoux in the Languedoc and of the Champagne expertise available via her husband, Rodolphe Frerejean-Taittinger, who heads Champagne Frerejean Frères. There is even, now, a vintage French Bloom, La Cuvée 2022 (£95, Frerejean-Taittinger has made it her mission to create a sparkling no-alcohol drink from grape juice that is as pleasurable as a champagne. She doesn't think they are quite there yet. 'We hope, in five to seven years, to be able to share a bottle with as much complexity as a wine,' she said at Women in the World of Wine, a conference on the future of wine (alcoholic and otherwise), held last autumn at the sumptuous Royal Champagne & Spa hotel. I'm sure she will get there. But my assumption has always been that for real complexity, alcohol helps. That Saicho experience made me think again. I experimented with a mocktail of my own: a version of one of my favourite cocktails, the kir royale, champagne and crème de cassis. A slug of Jukes 6 — The Dark Red (£43 for 9x30ml bottles, a savoury black-fruit cordial that is part of the Jukes Cordialities range, topped up with French Bloom's Le Rosé. It was lovely, softly floral with just a touch of blackberry acidity. After all, the only necessary beverage is water. Everything else is a luxury, intended to elicit the same sensations of delight as gazing at the ephemeral loveliness of cherry blossom. Pleasure is meant to be temporary. It's the memory that lasts — or at least, it does when the drink is alcohol-free.
Arab News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Sakura adorn Japan Pavilion at Esports World Cup in Riyadh
RIYADH: The Japan Pavilion at the Esports World Cup at Riyadh City Boulevard is now filled with Sakura trees as part of the cultural experiences accompanying the global event. According to the Saudi Press Agency, Japanese company Crunchyroll is also showing an artistic sculpture celebrating the deep symbolism of these trees in Japanese culture. Sakura, or cherry blossom trees, are generally used as a national symbol in Japan, featured mostly during spring, in food and beverages. The sculpture provides visitors with an opportunity to connect with one of Japan's cultural icons.
NHK
21-05-2025
- NHK
Japan sees record monthly number of overseas visitors in April
More than 3.9 million foreign travelers visited Japan in April, marking a record high for a single month and topping the previous record set in January this year. The Japan National Tourism Organization says an estimated 3,908,900 foreign travelers visited Japan last month, up 28.5 percent from the same month last year. The monthly figure exceeded the previous record of 3.78 million posted in January this year. The organization attributes the record number partly to the brisk demand for tours to Japan during the cherry blossom season. China topped the list with 765,100 visitors, up 43.4 percent from the same month a year before and the highest ever for April. For the first time in three months the figure for China was again the highest by country and region. Visitors from South Korea rose by 9.1 percent to 721,600, partly due to an increase in the number of flights connecting Japan and South Korea. Travelers from the Unites States came to 327,500, up 43.1 percent. Both countries also posted the highest numbers for April. The agency's commissioner, Haraikawa Naoya, said he intends to maintain the very favorable momentum. He said that if traveler numbers surge, the agency is expected to face problems such as tourists having to wait longer for entry procedures. He said it is important to put in place measures now to respond to such situations.
CNA
21-05-2025
- CNA
Japan tourists soared 28.5% in April to record 3.9 million
TOKYO: The number of foreign visitors to Japan soared 28.5 per cent in April year-on-year to a record 3.91 million, official figures showed on Wednesday (May 21). "Spring cherry blossom season boosted demand for visits to Japan in many markets, as in the previous month, and overseas travel demand increased in some Asian countries, in Europe, the US and Australia to coincide with the Easter holidays," the Japan National Tourism Organization said. It said the total surpassed the previous record of 3.78 million in January 2025 and was the highest single month on record, and the first single month to exceed 3.9 million visitors. For the first four months of the year the total was 14.4 million, a rise of 24.5 per cent. A weak yen has for months been leading to a boom in visitors, with national tourism figures released in January showing a record of about 36.8 million arrivals last year. The Japanese government has set an ambitious target of almost doubling tourist numbers to 60 million annually by 2030. Authorities say they want to spread sightseers more evenly around the country, and to avoid a bottleneck of visitors eager to snap spring cherry blossoms or vivid autumn colours. But as in other global tourist magnets like Venice in Italy, there has been growing pushback from residents in destinations such as the ancient capital of Kyoto. The tradition-steeped city, just a couple of hours from Tokyo on the bullet train, is famed for its kimono-clad geisha performers and increasingly crowded Buddhist temples. On Mount Fuji, the nation's highest mountain and a once-peaceful pilgrimage site, authorities have started charging climbers in an effort to reduce overcrowding. Last year a barrier was briefly erected outside a convenience store to stop people standing in the road to photograph a view of the snow-capped volcano that had gone viral. Business travellers in cities including Tokyo have complained that they have been priced out of hotels because of high demand from tourists. Tourists gobbling sushi and onigiri have also been cited as a factor in shortages of rice, which has pushed the price of the staple to record levels, creating a political headache for the government. This year the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) on Mar 30 declared the country's most common and popular "somei yoshino" variety of cherry tree in full bloom in Tokyo. Although this year's blooming dates are around the average, the JMA says climate change and the urban heat-island effect are causing sakura to flower approximately 1.2 days earlier every 10 years. Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Kansai University, estimated the economic impact of cherry blossom season in Japan, from travel to parties held under the flowers, at 1.1 trillion yen (US$7.3 billion) this year, up from 616 billion yen in 2023.
Japan Times
21-05-2025
- Japan Times
Japan's tourist arrivals soared 28.5% in April to hit record 3.9 million
The number of foreign visitors to Japan soared 28.5% in April on a year-on-year basis to a record 3.91 million, official figures showed Wednesday. "Spring cherry blossom season boosted demand for visits to Japan in many markets, as in the previous month, and overseas travel demand increased in some Asian countries, in Europe, the United States and Australia to coincide with the Easter holidays," the Japan National Tourism Organization said. It said the total surpassed the previous record of 3.78 million in January 2025 and is the highest number in a single month on record. For the first four months of the year, foreign visitor arrivals totaled 14.4 million, a 24.5% increase. A weak yen has for months been leading to a boom in visitors, with national tourism data released in January showing a record of about 36.8 million arrivals last year. The government has set an ambitious target of almost doubling tourist numbers to 60 million annually by 2030. Authorities say they want to spread sightseers more evenly around the country, and avoid a bottleneck of visitors eager to snap spring cherry blossoms or vivid autumn colors. But as in other global tourist magnets such as Venice in Italy, there has been growing pushback from residents in popular destinations such as Kyoto. The tradition-steeped city, just a couple of hours from Tokyo on the bullet train, is famed for its kimono-clad geisha performers and increasingly crowded Buddhist temples. On Mount Fuji, the nation's highest mountain and a once-peaceful pilgrimage site, authorities have started charging climbers in an effort to reduce overcrowding. Last year, a barrier was briefly erected outside a convenience store to stop people from standing on the road in front of it to take photographs with the snow-capped volcano in the background. Business travelers in cities including Tokyo have complained that they have been priced out of hotels because of high demand from tourists. Travelers gobbling sushi and onigiri have also been cited as a factor contributing to a rice shortage in the country, which has pushed prices of the staple to record levels, creating a political headache for the government. The Meteorological Agency on March 30 declared the country's most common and popular "somei yoshino" variety of cherry tree in full bloom in Tokyo. Although this year's blooming dates are around the average, the agency says climate change and the urban heat-island effect are causing sakura to flower approximately 1.2 days earlier every 10 years. Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Kansai University, estimated the economic impact of cherry blossom season in Japan, from travel to sakura viewing parties, at ¥1.1 trillion ($7.3 billion) this year, up from ¥616 billion in 2023.
