Asian Swallowtail (Papilio Xuthus) ナミアゲハ（並揚羽）

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The Asian swallowtail (Papilio xuthus) is found in Asia, Siberia and the Hawaiian Islands and can be found across Japan. Its female is known to have clearer blue areas in black bands on their hindwings, so most of those in these photos may be female. 

Butterflies usually close their wings when resting but are also known to open their wings to bask in the sun to warm their bodies, which gave me the moment to take these photos. 

2026/6/30

Antilles Mottlegill (Panaeolus Antillarum) ツヤマグソタケ（艶馬糞茸）

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It was great fun finding mushrooms that hadn't existed a few days earlier. They've just popped up for the past couple of days, during which it rained heavily due to a typhoon. Google Lens identifies them as antilles mottlegill (Panaeolus antillarum) but I'm not sure. 

Many mushrooms are safe to touch and eat (and tasty!) but some are not. In Japan, 30 to 70 people are treated for mushroom poisoning every year. The Japanese ministry of agriculture, forestry, and fishery has a website on 10 most typical poisonous mushrooms in Japan (in Japanese only).   

2026/6/30

Lysimachia Clethroides (Gooseneck Loosestrife) 丘虎の尾（オカトラノオ）

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The gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides) is native to east Asia and can be found across Japan, producing white flowers from June to August. It's edible and used to be eaten in Japan as a famine plant but tastes bitter and astringent. The plant's Japanese name is "Okatora no o," which translates into "tiger tail growing on hills," after its tiger tail looking flower spikes.  

2026/6/30

East Asian Mallotus (Mallotus Japonicus) アカメガシワ（赤芽柏）

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East Asian mallotus (Mallotus japonicus) is native to East Asia and can be found across Japan. The tree is dioecious, producing male and female flowers on separate trees from June to July. The trees in this post are all female with female flowers, producing clusters of fruits and seeds (scroll down) in two months. The three to four branched red parts of the female flowers are stigmas.

2026/6/29

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum Esculentum) ソバ（蕎麦）

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The buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is native to southwestern China and grown in Hokkaido and other prefectures in Japan but it's unusual for it to grow on the sidewalk like this. The plant produces white and pink flowers twice a year in Japan, i.e., summer buckwheat, which flower from late June to early July, and autumn buckwheat, which flower from early September to mid-October. Those in these photos should be summer buckwheat.

Many tourists come to Japan to eat tempura, sushi, ramen, wagyu, etc., but when you want to give your stomach a break, I would recommend a soba noodle. When your stomach doesn't need a break, you can of course enjoy having a soba noodle with tempura on it (i.e., tempura soba) or a soba noodle together with oyako don (chicken and egg rice bowl) or katsu don (Japanese pork cutlet and egg rice bowl), both of which you should generally be able to have at most soba noodle restaurants. 

2026/6/28

Japanese Spirea (Spiraea Japonica) シモツケ（下野）

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The Japanese spirea (Spiraea japonica) is native to China, Korea, and Japan and can be found across Japan, producing pink flowers with a beautiful gradient from pale to bright pink from May to August. The plant is named "shimotsuke" in Japanese after the Shimotsuke province or the current Tochigi prefecture where the plant was found for the first time in Japan. Its autumn leaves are also beautiful (scroll down)!

2026/6/28

Dendropanax Trifidus 隠れ蓑（カクレミノ）

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The Dendropanax trifidus is native to east Asia and can be found across Japan. The tree produces male and hermaphrodite flowers from June to July and then fruits, which turn black purple in late autumn. 

Its Japanese name is "kakuremino," which translates into "invisibility cloak," after the leaf looking like Tengu's magic cloak, which makes the wearer invisible like Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. Tengu are a type of mischievous yokai (supernatural beings) appearing in Japanese folklore. Imagining Harry Potter wearing Tengu's cloak made me chuckle😆.

The Dendropanax trifidus leaves change generally from a lobed to an ovate shape but some aren't lobed or ovate, which makes it difficult to identify the tree.  

2026/6/27

2023/7/21

Lespedeza (Bush Clovers) 萩（ハギ）

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The bush clover is native to east Asia and can be found across Japan. It's known as an autumn plant in Japan and its Japanese name "hagi" is a kigo or a seasonal word or phrase associated with a particular season used in traditional forms of Japanese poetry for autumn, but bush clovers actually flower from July to September and I once found a tree flowering in December (scroll down).

Bush clovers are known to produce pink flowers but they also have white flowers (Lespedeza buergeri) and some (Lespedeza  japonica bailey cv. versicolor) produce pink and white flowers on the same tree. 

2026/6/27

Broadleaf Plantain (Plantago Major) セイヨウオオバコ（西洋大葉子）

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The broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) is native to Eurasia while the Chinese plantain (Plantago asiatica) is native to east Asia and both can now be found across Japan. The former is larger than the latter but otherwise they resemble each other very much, so I can't tell which those in these photos are. The Plantago major flowers in summer and the Plantago asiatica from April to September in Japan. When I took these pictures, most had no flowers but I found one with many tiny cream flowers drooping after rain. 

  

2026/6/26

Sawtooth Oak (Quercus Acutissima) クヌギ（櫟）

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The sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima) is native to North East Asia and can be found across Japan. The tree is known for its acorns but its calybia and cupules are beautiful and so are its flowers, produced from April to May (scroll down), which always remind me of a "noren" or bead curtain hung at the entrance of many izakaya restaurants in Japan😆.     

By the way, the term "noren" has another meaning in Japan, that is, goodwill for accounting and tax purposes because noren, which often has a trade name on it, is believed to represent customers' trust and brand value. Noren or goodwill is generally amortized over 20 years or less under Japanese GAAP and 5 years for Japanese tax purposes but not amortized but impaired when devalued for IFRS purposes. Why so different?  

As a relatively conservative country, Japan has preferred to take a conservative approach that goodwill, i.e., value in excess of market value, should decline as time goes by. Japan also doesn't like an impairment test, which could be manipulated by the management. Which approach would you choose?   

2026/6/26 Calybium and cupule

Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis Jalapa) オシロイバナ（白粉花）

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The marvel of Peru (Mirabilis jalapa) is native to South America, came to Japan at the beginning of the Edo period (1603-1868), and is now planted for ornamental purposes across the country. It produces white, red, yellow, pink, and variegated flowers from late June to October. Its another name "four o'clock flowers" is after it usually opening at around 4 p.m.  

Its Japanese name is "Oshiroi bana," which translates into "white makeup powder flower," after the endosperm in the black seeds looking like white makeup powder.

2026/6/24