One of the more famous places in Japan for viewing the cherry blossoms is Maruyama Park (円山公園) in Kyoto. We didn’t plan to go there, but ended up in the thick of things anyway. We had a splendid little lunch of yakiniku with C.C. Lemon to wash it down next to these guys who were enjoying their Asahi Beer (advertised in yesterday’s blog entry).

Cherry blossom viewing parties (花見) are a common sight in late March and early April in most of Japan. This picture captures the essence of many of those parties: food, friends, beer, kimono, lanterns, and Mickey Mouse. Actual cherry blossoms are an optional bonus. We were lucky enough to have them on this occasion. We did a 花見 in Tokyo, which was just as crowded, without any blossoms yet on the trees.

Posted on January 15th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, food, japan pictures, kyoto, people, sakura. Comments Off on 円山公園の花見

“That trees, at least Japanese trees, have souls cannot seem an unnatural fancy to one who has seen the blossoming of the umenoki and the sakuranoki. This is a popular belief in Izumo and elsewhere. It is not in accord with Buddhist philosophy, and yet in a certain sense it strikes one as being much closer to cosmic truth than the old Western orthodox notion of trees as ‘things created for the use of man.'” (Lafcadio Hearn, 1894, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, p. 358)

Posted on January 3rd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: arashiyama, cherry blossoms, japan pictures, kyoto, lafcadio hearn, sakura. Comments Off on 桜の木

“There is one place in Japan where it is thought unlucky to cultivate chrysanthemums, for reasons which shall presently appear; and that place is in the pretty little city of Himeji, in the province of Harima. Himeji contains the ruins of a great castle of thirty turrets; and a daimyō used to dwell therein whose revenue was one hundred and fifty-six thousand koku of rice. Now, in the house of one of that daimyō’s chief retainers there was a maid-servant, of good family, whose name was O-Kiku; and the name “Kiku” signifies a chrysanthemum flower. Many precious things were entrusted to her charge, and among others ten costly dishes of gold. One of these was suddenly missed, and could not be found; and the girl, being responsible therefor, and knowing not how otherwise to prove her innocence, drowned herself in a well. But ever thereafter her ghost, returning nightly, could be heard counting the dishes slowly, with sobs…

Her spirit passed into the body of a strange little insect, whose head faintly resembles that of a ghost with long disheveled hair; and it is called O-Kiku-mushi, or “the fly of O-Kiku;” and it is found, they say, nowhere save in Himeji…

…the people of Himeji say that part of their city now called Go-Ken-Yashiki is identical with the site of the ancient manor. What is certainly true is that to cultivate chrysanthemum flowers in the part of Himeji called Go-Ken-Yashiki is deemed unlucky, because the name of O-Kiku signifies “Chrysanthemum.” Therefore, nobody, I am told, ever cultivates chrysanthemums there.” (Lafcadio Hearn, 1894, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, p. 363)

Posted on January 2nd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: castle, cherry blossoms, himeji, lafcadio hearn, sakura. Comments Off on Himeji in Glimpses

The above picture was taken in the Koukoen next to Himeji Castle. You can see part of the castle walls in the photograph.

The reason you are seeing this photo today is a rather random one. I’ve been disappointed in my ability to take pictures so that the pictures look like what my eyes see. Frequently if I focus on my subject the sky turns a cloudless white even if it is blue or filled with lovely clouds. Alternatively, if I focus on the sky my subject turns black.

Today I saw this post and decided to give Photomatix a try. The above picture was my random test subject. Photomatix didn’t work on it though. For Photomatix to work you really have to take three pictures of the exact same scene using three different exposure settings. Since my camera (Canon PowerShot S3 IS) does have an Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB Mode) option I will give it a try in the future. However, all of my past pictures will have to remain in their whited-out sky state.

Posted on December 7th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, himeji, japan pictures, sakura. Comments: 2

Ueno Park (上野公園) in Tokyo is famous for its cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, we were a bit too early (in late March) to see many. Another week or two and this road would have been really spectacular. The fact that there weren’t many blossoms didn’t seem to deter the Japanese from having all sorts of hanami (花見, flower viewing) parties.

If you look closely at this picture (maybe after clicking on it so it becomes larger) you’ll see hundreds of bins for recycling on either side of this road. It’s rare that you see trash bins in Japan even though things are cleaner than just about any place on earth. But in Ueno Park during the hanami season there are more recycling bins than anywhere I’ve seen before.

The sign on the lower right says そう資源 別ゴミ箱 which means something like “preserve our natural resources by separating garbage into the different bins.” On the lower left it says カン (cans) and 生ゴミ (living garbage, like banana peels, etc.)

I should also mention that the above picture was taken at about 10 a.m. in the morning. Imagine the number of people in the afternoon and evening when the blossoms are going crazy!

Posted on November 17th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, japan pictures, people, sakura, Tokyo, ueno. Comments Off on Ueno park 上野公園