[The agave atrovirents blossom in Shinjuku-gyoen, Tokyo]

[ The century plant }
Ver.1.1 2004/07/01
Ver.4.1 2004/07/15

The century plant and I
On 22nd June 2004, I went to Shinjuku-gyoen to see the agave blossom. It is called the century plant because it blooms only once every hundred years.

In Japan, The Taketori-Story is very famous as a fairy story. The princess Kaguyahime is the heroine of the Taketori-Story.
One day when an old man was cutting bamboo. He was surprise to find a baby girl inside the bamboo. He took her home to his wife. She grew up to be a very beautiful lady. A lot of Young guys proposed to her, but she asked to them to do very difficult tasks.
One of them was the Udonge's flower. It was called a very rare flower because it only bloomed once every 3 thousand years in a Buddhist romantic story. So the princess Kaguyahime gave the impossible task to a young guy.

Now we can see "Modern Udonge's flower" agave's flower in the Shinjuku gyoen, Tokyo. There are 10s big orchids in the patio of the greenhouse. The agave is said to bloom once every hundred years. It is in bloom now. It is 1~2 meters high and the flower stem is 7~8 meters high. A cutting from an agave will bloom once even 30~40 years. An agave grown from seed will bloom once every 80~100 years.

Agave atrovirents All of the flower Top of the flower Close up the flower

After looking at it, I looked at other plants until closing time of the green house.

2 lady visitors Last year flower cut now Victoria cruziana Heliconia rostrata

The 3 ladies in Shinjuku-gyoen
When I left, 3 ladies wanted to see it, but the green house was closed.
In another area the same 3 ladies asked me to take some photos. After taking photos we walked around the park together, because one of them who was from Australia wanted to speak English to me.
One of them was Chinese-Japanese "A" who spoke Japanese and Chinese. Two of them ware Chinese-Australian, a mother and her daughter. And the mother "B" could speak Chinese and English. The daughter "C" spoke English only. Our communications were very complex using English, Chinese and Japanese, because A and I spoke Japanese, A and B spoke Chinese, B, C and I spoke English.

The Australian "B" wanted to speak English to me, because she had a lot of stress in Japan because almost all Japanese people who can't speak English. She asked me " Why almost all Japanese people who are given high education cannot speak English?" The answer was very difficult for me.
After that, the Australian lady asked me " Have you been to Australia?" I answered "I went to Melbourne and Sydney 3 years ago. I drove a rent-a-bike around Melbourne for 3 days, and I took trip in a rent-a-car with my friend for 2 days on the Great Osean Road, and I went on the bridge-clibing tour and the lunch cruise in Sydney-bay for 2 days. She was surprised.

Note : My home page Menu:My Overseas Trip Subject: [Touring Report in Australia] Jump after crick.

She said that she and her daughter would go to Los Angels, Las Vegas and New York in the USA, and Toronto in Canada on her daughter's winter holidays after sight seeing in Japan.

They thanked me as said good-bye.

[Agave atrovirents]
Mexco, It is used to make Tequila (alcohole).
It is called the century plant because it blooms only once every hundred years.

[Udonge]
Udonge is "udunbara" in Sanskrit. (It's meening auspicious)

[Using Camera] CANON Kiss Digital
[Using Lens] CANON EFS Zoom 18～55mm（35mm Film Conversion 29～88mm）

MT=3
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