I think Spring must have encountered this sign, because the cherry trees bloomed in Kyoto this year before they bloomed here, and that’s completely unnatural. It’s slowly warming up-ish, but today was cloudy. I did manage to get my antique Chinese cabinet home and I accidentally bought about $50 worth of Japanese stamps. Stay tuned.
Walk This Way…
Monday Stroll, or Hanami Block Party
This post is dedicated to my MUM! who takes all the whiny, emotionally needy phone calls in stride. 🙂 So anywho, you can see the trees have pinked up with buds. It’s amazing what one day of sunshine will do! It’s still REALLY cold, but today when I was out of the wind and in…
Music for Cruising
This traditional Japanese country song was a delightful accompaniment to cruising up and down the river. Alas, the chance for Ace of Base never came.
Cherry Blossom Snow
“Then the wind blows and you’re surrounded by cherry blossom petals like a snow storm!” Right, well we’re not experiencing THAT yet. We had real snow this week. So Naval Air Facility Atsugi’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival today is a bit under-bloomed and quite cold! Taking group photos in our pilots’ bomber jackets and flight…
High Tech
Snow the week the hot water heater went out last month was unfortunate. This morning it’s freakishly cold in my kitchen: 9 degrees C (that’s 48 F). At least I have all the hot water I need. My realtor had the entire hot water system replaced with this little high-tech wonder!! I’m not sure what…
Mortality on a Cold Day
I’m running surveillance on the cherry blossoms by the stream near my house daily. Maybe I’m crazy, but when it’s warm it seems like the branches visibly swell and droop with the added weight of sakura buds. Today did nothing for this phenomenon—it was cold and cloudy and the lows dipped into the 30s. The…
Walking to (through?) Ikebana
Little teasers, little teasers! Warm weather last week, a bit of sunshine, spring rain that’s soft, not biting. Birds, wild paperwhites, daffodils, trees full of big fat heavy blossoms, green weeds sprouting everywhere…sheesh, Mari, it’s like you’ve never heard of spring before! Right well, I’m from Texas = hot and no, I’ve no memory of…