Tokyo Trip | Asakusa Temple on weekdays, grand bazaar on holidays, and a visit to the lantern plant market is a must!

❤ It's July again, entering the summer season, and the peak of the travel season will arrive! Asakusa, as one of Tokyo's most famous tourist attractions, is extraordinarily lively, especially because it hosts the annual lantern plant market. 👍 The lantern plant belongs to the family Solanaceae and is a perennial herbaceous plant, also known as Chinese lantern or winter cherry. It blooms at the end of June and the beginning of July, with the fruit's membranous covering inflating into a bladder-like shape, turning orange-red upon maturity, resembling little red lanterns, making it very suitable for ornamental purposes. In Japanese, the lantern plant is called 'hōzuki,' meaning a child's red cheeks, so during the two days of the lantern plant market, many parents also bring their children to join in the fun. 🌟 The official name of the Asakusa Lantern Plant Market is 'Shimankyūsendo Hōzuki Ichi,' and during this period, vendors also sell Edo wind chimes, which are a symbol of summer. Other cities have wind chime festivals, so it fits the scene perfectly. Tokyo is also very hot in the summer, so vendors soak the lantern plants in buckets of water to prevent them from drying out. Along with the loud hawking of the shop owners, the competition between shops is still fierce, as every year there are more than 100 shops selling here. ✅ The culture of the lantern plant, whose origins are now unknown, adapts to the summer atmosphere. The red lantern plants bring a touch of beauty to the home, and with the crisp sound of the Edo wind chimes clinking gently, the prelude to summer begins.