-- Susan, every other Sunday
The Spring Equinox is a national holiday in Japan, and this year it happened to coincide with the peak sakura (cherry blossom) blooms--which are popping out a couple of weeks earlier than normal.
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| Sakura blooming in Mizumoto Park, Katsushika, Tokyo |
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| Up close and personal with the blossoms. |
One cloudy morning, I met a writer friend to see the blossoms in a different part of town. We started out with Tokyo's famous "jiggly" souffle pancakes in Tokyo's Harajuku district...
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| Jiggly pancake! |
And then made our way to the park, where we found not only sakura, but a murder in progress:
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| Murder is, indeed, everywhere... |
Grey skies aren't ideal for pictures, but the blossoms themselves were beautiful
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| Spring is here. |
Sakura season also means an enormous range of specialty drinks, desserts, and sweets. Which, of course, I feel honor-bound to sample.
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| Take one...or nine...for the team. |
The spring equinox itself was beautiful, with blue skies and many, many blossoms.
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| Sakura near Tokyo |
The parks in and around Tokyo are bursting with beautiful trees, and people are finally able to enjoy traditional hanami (flower/sakura viewing) picnics, as the restrictions of the past three years have been lifted. Huzzah!!
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| A perfect place for a picnic beneath the cherry blossoms |
The blossoms last only a very few days, and this afternoon's rain will shorten their lives even further, but that's also part of the reason the sakura play such a vital role in Japanese culture. Their fleeting beauty reminds us that life itself is beautiful and short, and that we should be in the moment, love the moment, and appreciate both the beauty around us and the bittersweet sorrow that comes with the knowledge that this, too, will pass away.
We blink, and the moment is gone, never to return.
As the blossoms bloom and fall, I hope you're finding the time to enjoy the beauty around you today, and that you can get out and walk in the sun, or even in the rain. May your spring be healthy and joyful!
Have you seen cherry blossoms in bloom? If not, would you like to someday?
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These are all so lovely--both the sweet stuff and the sweet smelling stuff!
ReplyDeleteSusan, if I lived in Japan and were confronted with as many tantalizing edible treats as you trot out before us, I'd have to climb twice as many mountains as you do just keep the same pants size.
ReplyDelete