Shops are flooded with cherry blossom merchandise and food, the colour pink suddenly popping up in decorative garlands and flower-shaped sweets.

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It does everything from breeding new seeds and cattle, to creating ultra-thin edible wrapping paper for foodstuffs that changes colour when the food goes off, to running a nanotechnology laboratory creating biodegradable ultra-strong fabrics and wound dressings.

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And, indeed, the majority of fast-food restaurants feature red prominently in their colour schemes.

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The market square outside Mi Tierra is suddenly alive with noise, colour and the aroma of muscular street food: the city is out in force to celebrate its Hispanic chilli queens, whose saucy banter and impromptu singalongs made every night a street party - until the 1930s, when the civic authorities despaired of their ribaldry and laissez-faire approach to food hygiene.

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