百花繚乱

ひゃっか　りょうらん
hyakka ryouran

I'm making plans to head to Huis Ten Bosch, a re-creation of some major Dutch landmarks and a Dutch themed town, located in Sasebo, near Nagasaki. Huis Ten Bosch boasts great beer, outstanding chocolate, an M.C. Escher museum, and gardens that are renowned throughout all of Japan. Or... all of Kyushu at least. Advertisements actually bill Huis Ten Bosch as "the world's largest flower resort," and seeing as how they are currently featuring their ｢花の祝祭、」 I figured I could prepare by arming myself with this one, and arm you with a couple of flower themed phrases as well.

Definition:
種々の花が咲き乱れるように、優れた人物や業績が一時にたくさん現れること。
Translations:
1. A multitude of flowers blooming.
2. A sudden and varied flourishing of anything.
3. A gathering of a lot of beautiful women.
4. Simultaneous emergence of many talents and achievements.

This expression is used literally, with some regularity, even if it's mostly in the spring time but it's also used to talk about floral patterns in clothing or prints. And, as you can imagine from translations 2 and 4, it can also be applied to things like cultural renaissances or technological revolutions. Or you can use it as a metaphor about hot chicks. See if you can pick out which meaning is being used before clicking on the links below:

• 四季折々の百花繚乱
• 百花繚乱の画家たち
• プールサイド百花繚乱

Of course, Japan is not the only country to make the comparison between flowers and women, and this is by no means the only expression in which they do so. Tomorrow's trivia post will focus on some cool flower-related expressions and random words, but to tide you over until then, take this one today:

両手に花
りょうて　に　はな
ryou te ni hana

"A flower in each hand" is a girl on each arm, and it’s used regularly to describe men who are torn between two women (or who are simply dating two women); jokingly, to describe a married man with a wife and daughter; or most commonly, as revealed by Google Image Search, to cleverly caption personal photos that have two women in them.

Back with more flowers tomorrow!

例文(borrowed from the yoji databank)：
海外から大量にオンラインゲームが輸入され、日本市場ではまさに百花繚乱の激しい抗争が繰り広げられている。
The large, intial influx of foreign-produced online-gaming products, caused the blossoming of violent resistance in the Japanese market.