Today’s photo wasn’t taken in Japan. I took it last week on the SOU campus. It’s one of the few cherry trees in Oregon that look like the sakura so common in Japan.

I don’t have a macro lens for my Nikon D7000. The camera with the 18-200mm lens simply won’t focus on anything closer than half a meter (1.6 feet) from the lens. I thought this would be problematic in taking these kinds of macro shots. That has not been a problem though. Instead of going inches from the target and taking the photo at or near 18mm, I just back up and zoom. This photo was taken hand held with a breeze blowing at 150mm. Not a bad macro, close-up shot for a non-macro lens like this…

Posted on April 10th, 2011 under Japan, Oregon. Tags: cherry blossoms, macro, Nikon 18-200mm VR II, nikon d7000, photography, sakura, 桜. Comments: 1

I’m realizing, with the blossoming of the cherry trees in Ashland, Oregon this year, just how many different varieties of cherry trees there are and how the ones in Oregon aren’t much like the ones in Japan (pictured above). For starters, most in Japan have white blossoms. Most in the USA, or in my part of Oregon anyway, are pink. Even the ones in the USA that have been around for decades look like they could have been planted just a few years ago, while those in Japan all seem larger and more ancient.

How are the cherry blossoms where you are?

Posted on April 2nd, 2011 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, kandagawa, sakura, Tokyo. Comments: 1

The cherry blossoms have officially opened in Tokyo. I long to be there, but it’s not going to happen this year. I walked along the Kanda River nearly every night during sakura season last year. The massive cherry trees bent over the river and the lanterns lit them ever so sweetly. Notice the signs posted every few feet on the fence along the river. On them were written haiku by neighbors about sakura, the Kanda River, or both. Some of the poems were beautiful. Others were funny. This one was sad.

It says “桜見ず、パソコンながめ、勤務中” and was written by someone who calls himself 05パパ. Dad5’s poem reads, “Without viewing the cherry blossoms, I stare at my computer, in the middle of work.” I hope Dad5 is able to get out and see the cherry blossoms this year.

Posted on March 29th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, kandagawa, lanterns, night photography, sakura, signs. Comments Off on Sakura haiku (桜俳句)

While the western media continues to fuel a panic, resulting in the USA and Britain now joining the French who immediately panicked, the cherry blossoms around Odawara Castle prepare to blossom.

Meanwhile, the levels of radiation in Tokyo remain about the same as they were back in December. Below 60 is normal. As of this writing, Tokyo sits below 20, yet the panic intensifies thanks to a media looking for ratings.

In my neck of the woods, the fear and panic isn’t much better. Stores in Oregon are reporting a run on potassium iodine tablets, leaving the shelves empty. Never mind that radiation from the equivalent of 1,000 Chernobyls was released closer to Oregon (mostly in the Pacific Ocean) during the nuclear testing of the 1950s and 1960s and taking potassium iodine wasn’t necessary then either.

Where are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert when you need them? It’s time for another rally.

Posted on March 17th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: castle, cherry blossoms, odawara, sakura. Comments Off on Odawara Castle during cherry blossom season

Just your average scene in modern Japan–shrines, cherry blossoms, and samurai. Believe it or not, turning around from where I took this picture (武田神社) resulted in a view of Mt. Fuji as well. Ho hum.

Posted on February 11th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, kofu, people, sakura. Comments: 1