Sunflower Festival in Zama, Japan
Zama is a city located in central Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan,
famous for its extensive sunflower fields. Every year in summer the
flowers bloom and during this time the annual Sunflower Festival or
Himawari Matsuri is organized. From late July through August more than
half a million sunflowers are displayed at various locations around
Zama.
During the festival, visitors can enjoy music and
entertainment, great food and buy farm fresh produce. An array of
sunflower products, from Sunflower seeds to Sunflower beer and sunflower
pasta are sold at the festival. The plants grow pretty tall - over 5
feet. A raised platform is built at the edge of the field enabling
visitors to take elevated pictures of the entire sunflower field.
The
sunflower, which is indigenous to America, were brought to Europe in
the 16th century, where, along with sunflower oil, they became a
widespread cooking ingredient. Sunflower leaves aren’t wasted, either,
being used for cattle feed and the fibrous stems for paper production.
Sunflowers also has a peculiar ability to extract toxic ingredients from
soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. After the Fukushima nuclear
disaster last year, volunteers and campaigners in Japan grew sunflowers
to decontaminate the radioactive soil. A similar campaign was mounted in
response to the Chernobyl disaster in Russia.
