The end of the cherry blossom season

We are at the end of the cherry blossom season in my part of Japan.  That was quick wasn't it?

For the Japanese the charm of the cherry blossoms is their fleeting beauty.  They are to be enjoyed to their fullest because they won't be with us very long...

Sasuga hana chiru ni miren wa nakari keri

さすが花ちるにみれんはなかりけり

Without regret

they fall and scatter...

cherry blossoms

                                             by Kobayashi Issa

These were the scattering cherry blossoms two days ago on the road near our house. Today the trees are nearly bare of flowers...

There are different species of cherry blossoms however and the stronger pink flowers with a greater bundle of petals will soon be blooming.  They are much flashier than the small single petaled flowers and they seem a bit hardier but they are maybe not as well loved just because of their hardiness...

This is another species of cherry blossoms that I see on my morning walking course.

The flowers bloom at the same time as the leaves do making them not quite as ethereal.

 And just a tree over there was another species with green leaves!

This is a shot from across the expressway.  Now isn't that a pretty highway to drive down?

This was actually a picture I took a couple of years ago when visiting Kyoto...

The cherry blossoms are leaving us until next year...
                                  ... but there are lots of other flowers beginning to bloom!
 

Almost missed sunset

We were just driving along to the swimming pool after I had spent the afternoon downloading photos onto my computer.  I'd left my SD card in the computer thinking,

"We are going to the pool.  There's nothing to photograph at the pool.  It is getting on towards dark.  I don't need to reopen my computer to retrieve my SD card."  (My computer crashes if I just take the card out without shutting things down first.)

Just down the street a ways Tetsu noticed the setting sun.

"Look at that sunset!  Rats!  I left my camera in the house thinking I wouldn't need it tonight.  It's a good thing you have yours with you."

Oh no...  I have the camera but no SD card...  But wait!  Didn't I months ago stick an extra SD card in the bag pocket.  I think I did, I think I did...  I did!

We were able to pull over by a rice field and I whipped my camera out now with a SD card and took pictures of the fading sunset.

It is no good having a camera if one doesn't carry it around.  It is no good carrying a camera around if it doesn't have an SD card in it.  For only a matter of a minute or two I got the chance to photograph the colorful spectacle.  I'm sure glad I had that spare SD card!

Greens

The farmers are out early in the mornings readying their fields for planting, turning the soil.  Some of them have early crops coming in already.

The other morning as we were walking home a little after 6:00 when we met my neighbor coming in from his fields.  He was carrying a basket of greens and he grabbed a handful and handed it to me. 

These are kakina, which I guess is translated as just "greens".

Fifteen minutes later they were on our breakfast table served cold with soy sauce and mayonnaise.  Fresh and delicious!

This was actually where the greens were headed...  To the farmer's shed where his wife was bundling them and getting them ready to take to the local market in a few minutes.  We definitely can get fresh vegetables where we live!  But one has to get to the market early in the day or else everything is sold out.

I need to go grocery shopping now but it is already 4:00 in the afternoon.  I guess it will have to be a supermarket trip today.

Sumo

Off on a non-related subject...

Sumo is the national sport of Japan.  It may seem odd that watching two naked men as large as small elephants wrestle together is entertaining but the sport grows on you.  Whereas I will not stay in the same room when Tetsu is watching pro-wrestling or boxing, I can watch sumo with no problem and enjoy the rituals and traditions associated with it.  I have actually never been to a sumo match but I wouldn't mind going...

Though sumo is originally a Japanese sport/tradition, there are quite a few foreign sumo wrestlers in Japan now.  The first and most famous international sumo wrestler was Takamiyama who was from Hawaii.  In recent years wrestlers from Mongolia have made a huge claim to the sumo grand champion titles and there are a few wrestlers from Europe and I think one wrestler from the middle east.

The rules for sumo are rather simple.  The full contact wrestling is done in a dirt ring that is raised from the spectator seats.  The object is to force the opponent from the ring or to have any part of the opponent's body other than the soles of the feet touch the ground in the ring.  The obi belt which is wrapped around and around the athletes' waist, makes for a good grip hold and the match is usually over in a few seconds.  One try, one victory, one day's work completed.  A daily competition for 30 or 40 wrestlers extends over two weeks.

The obi is traditional.  The sumo hairstyle is traditional, being long and waxed and then tied into a "tail" that is set on the top of the head.  No rubber-bands or hairpins used by the way!  There is a special hairstylist that grooms the wrestlers but when they aren't wrestling they have a more relaxed "tail" upon their head.

Before a match, purifying sake is presented in a square wooden cup from the last victor to the next competitor (I think.... I'm getting fuzzy here) and the two wrestlers in the ring will glare at each other and pose and stomp their feet and purify themselves by throwing large handfuls of salt into the air.  When one athlete is left in the dust (literally) the competitors will go to their opposite sides of the ring and bow politely to each other.  No display of emotion or pain is allowed.

All these rituals have their origins from Shintoism the national religion of Japan.  The long hair, the sake giving and the salt throwing.  There is another ritual/decree/tradition which says females are not allowed into the sumo ring and it is this decree that has been causing a lot of hub-bub the past couple of days in Japan.

It is true that there are a few things in Japan that are off limits to women...  I can't really think of many...  Certain religious festivals can only have male participants... This sumo edict of no women in the sumo ring has a long history and is followed strictly.  Something about being impure...  Although as many women as men attend sumo competitions, although there are women on the sumo board of directors, women are not allowed in the ring.  A couple of years ago some female mayor was supposed to give an award at a presentation ceremony as her male predecessors had done before, but she was refused participation... because she was female.  

A couple of days ago, at another sumo competition, the mayor of some city (male mayor) suddenly collapsed from a stroke in the middle of the sumo ring.  People rushed to the raised ring to help him and this included two women paramedics who happened to be attending the sumo competition for their own entertainment.  The two women performed CPR on the man until the official paramedics arrived and transported the mayor to a hospital where he had surgery and is expected to live.

So here these women paramedics are saving this man's life and yet the announcement over the loudspeaker asks all women to leave the ring.  No females allowed.  They are tainting the ring and angering the gods. 

That has not gone over well with Japan... men AND women.  And even the sumo board of directors have publicly apologized saying the time and circumstances made the announcement inappropriate.

(Photo from the Internet)

The traditional and the modern often butt heads in Japan...  Just like the sumo wrestlers.

The front door

This morning I have been cleaning my front porch. 

We went out and bought flowers on Sunday and I suppose things are looking colorful though with my lack of green thumb I don't know how long the area near the front door will look that way.  We have such a tiny yard... until I start planting flowers and then there are so many places that need color!  If I were better at keeping plants alive then maybe I wouldn't feel like I'm throwing my money away when I plant things....

While I was in the garden shop, I noticed a display of entryway name plates and though I have seen them for 40 years it made me stop and think that name plates are not really a custom in the States... or maybe at least not in California.  American homes may have number plates on their front porch and if there is a curb on the street there may be stenciled house numbers, but I don't think I've ever seen family name plates announcing to the world who lives in the house...

In Japan we don't always have house numbers posted (though they are becoming more common in tract neighborhoods.)  Someone once explained to me that houses are usually built one by one with other houses squeezed in between the older houses or a entryway walk to a group of houses squeezed in between carports.  It is extremely difficult to find houses in Japan by just looking at a map because the numbers jump around from one street to another.  And by the way, there are no street names either!  The neighborhood is called the such and such neighborhood and all the houses will have nearly the same address...

Thanks to GPS and probably to the better GPS systems, it is somewhat easier to find an address though actually I don't know because our car GPS takes us only to the neighborhood and then says, "You are now in the vicinity" and then goes into silent mode.  At least it could say "good luck".

But!  Not all is lost!  Most houses have name plates near the front door or on the outer wall of the house's yard.  Just a couple of weeks ago Tetsu and I went looking for a house of Tetsu's old friend in Morioka.  Neither of us remembered the exact house.

"Old...  Two storied...  a couple of houses down from the corner..."

Tetsu finally got out of the car and walked up and down the hill and back streets looking at all the houses' name plates.  (He never found his friend's house... It turns out we were in the wrong neighborhood.  So much for our memories.)

Anyway... back to the nameplates.

Nameplates are very convenient when looking for a house and nowadays there are such a variety of them with western writing as well as Japanese characters.  I guess privacy is not an issue and I have even seen a map of a whole neighborhood posted near a community center telling the world the names of the families and the exact house they live in!

We have our own nameplate up on the front of the house and though it may not be as elegant as some of the custom-made garden shop ones, it is very pleasant and serves the purpose.  Years ago when my kids were still in elementary school, Marcy decided to have a nameplate made for us at Knott's Berry Farm and she wanted it to be a surprise.  She enlisted Takumi to write our family name in Japanese characters for her and somehow got the engraver to laser carve the characters into the wooden plaque.  It is an excellent representation of Takumi's handwriting at the time...  which, by the way, wasn't very neat back in 5th grade... and now for posterity we have our name, rather childishly written, near our front door.

I love it!

 Dare I go out and buy more flowers?

More cherry blossoms

Someone asked if we get fruit from cherry blossom trees.  Nope!  Cherry blossoms are strictly for beautifying Japan (and wherever else the flowers may be.)  Cherry blossoms are the national flower and they are practically WORSHIPPED in Japan. 

Even the Japanese 1000 yen bill honors the cherry blossoms.

The whole country is going crazy for cherry blossoms right now with festivals and events being held in all the towns as the cherry blossom front moves north. 

After church on Sunday Tetsu and I went hunting again for cherry blossom sites.  I'm not going to get excited about the cherry blossom festivals where companies and offices go stake out the best places under cherry blossom trees and put one of their underlings to sit under the tree all day until the rest of the office party gets there with their cases of beer.  I don't much like all the booths and traveling eateries that set up under the trees too so that there are aromas of roasting squid, french fries and sweet and salty rice dumplings.  WAY too much hub-bub for me and the crowds, the garbage and the ignoring of the flowers irk me to no end.

Let's find a QUIET place with not many people... preferably beside a river... 

Ah!  Found the river!

This was an off the beaten track children's park in the countryside of Tochigi and we could spot the fluff of white trees from quite a distance.

The small foot bridge going across the river was dedicated to cherry blossoms!  We're in the right place!

There was a family enjoying a picnic in the park and a few parents with children playing but basically we had the cherry blossoms to ourselves.

Quiet.

Peaceful.

Rape seed blossoms bloom at the same time as cherry blossoms and the countryside is slowly becoming colorful.

Nothing like playing "let's take each other's picture."

I see you too.

A much better way to spend the day than with the crowds!
 

Cherry blossoms!

Happy Easter!  Christ is Risen!

This weekend Tetsu and I went out hunting for cherry blossoms...  Which isn't hard to do as the cherry blossoms forecast is "Peak time for cherry blossoms in Tochigi prefecture!"

(picture from the Internet)

We get daily updates about the sakura front moving north...

So these photos are some from a street in the next town (where I had once picked Choco 13 years ago!...  Not in cherry blossom season though) taken in the late afternoon.

Here I am risking my life in the middle of the road (much like Choco had done) waiting for the road to clear of cars so that I could take...

 ...this picture.

 Tetsu did lots of zoom work.

 So delicate and beautiful!

 I tried back-lighting...

 From a distance the delicate pink looks like white but close up the sakura are definitely pink.

We stopped in a park and watched families picnicking and playing under the trees.

 Even close to the houses, the trees were beautiful.

 More tomorrow!  We are enjoying the heralding of spring!