木村：お住まいは確か、石神井公園でしたね。
佐藤：ええ、今はつつじが見ごろで、とてもきれいですよ。
Kimura: Osumai wa tashika, Shakujii-koen deshita ne.
Sato : Ee, ima wa tsutsujiga migoro de, totemo kirei desuyo.
Kimura: If I remember rightly, you live near Shakujii Park, don't you?
Sato : Yes, it's really beautiful at the moment, with the azaleas in full bloom.
Migoro is often used to talk about flowers which are in full bloom, at their peak, or at their most attractive.
Perhaps, most frequently, it is used to talk about cherry blossoms.
With the best cherry blossom viewing period lasting only about a week to 10 days, you always hear people saying, Sakura no migoro wa itsu goro ni naru deshoo ne (I wonder when the cherry blossoms will be at their peak).
Owing to recent developments in biotechnology, there are always plenty of flowers in bloom on display at florist shops-to such an extent that you begin to lose all sense of what season they usually bloom in.
Over Golden Week I noticed some tulips in the flower beds in Hibiya Park, and I thought to myself, yes, of course, chuurippu no migoro wa ima (this time of year is when tulips are at their best).
Yet, tulips are available from florists throughout the year.
Unlike the tulip, you never see azaleas at the florist. This is one flower by which the Japanese can really sense the changing of the seasons.
In Shakujii Park, about 15 minutes out of Ikebukuro Station on the Seibu Line, tsutsuji no migoro wa gogatsu de, ike no mawari wa iro toridori no hana de totemo kirei desu (azaleas are at their most attractive in May, and in all their variety of colors they make a beautiful sight around the lake).
At Nezu Shrine, a famous azalea viewing spot in Tokyo, there are 3,000 azaleas representing 50 different varieties, but zannen nagara, hana no migoro wa sugite shimaimashita (unfortunately, we've missed seeing them at their best).
In the same way as we use migoro to talk about flowers, we also have the expression tabegoro, to talk about food when it is in season.
Ima wa takenoko ga tabegoro nanode, yuushoku wa takenoko gohan ni shimashoo (Bamboo shoots are in season at the moment, so let's have bamboo shoots in rice for dinner).
Udo wa tabegoro wo nogasu to katakute oishiku arimasen yo (If you let udo go past its best, it goes hard and doesn't taste so good).
Today's generation of supermarket shoppers are becoming increasingly unfamiliar with traditional Japanese foods, such as bamboo shoots, udo and bog rhubarbs, because supermarkets simply don't stock their shelves with them.