A warm spring day.

It was a warm spring day. The highest temperature exceeded 10 degrees for the first time this year. Instead of going for a routine walking exercise, I drove to the Takaoka cemetery,and then walked into the bush,and picked some butterbur sprouts for tempura.I ate tempura of butterbur sprouts and other ingredients and vinegared butterbur sprouts seasoned by miso. It is reported that,in Tokyo,and other places in central and southern Japan,cherry blossoms are in full bloom.Here in Hokkaido,it will take another month for cherry blossoms to bloom. The only flowers we see blooming in the gardens are tiny yellow flowers called "fukuju sou" whose English name is "adonis". I don't know whether or not that name is known by many English-speaking people. I'll try to ask my Japanese students,Bryan from New York and Emmet from Ireland on Friday.