I thought the season was over, but Sarah shows me it’s not. Stunning photos. The “Matabe” cherry tree is well worth a visit, if you are in Nara at that time of year.
Please read, “Spring is (still) in full swing 2”.
Matabe-Cherry tree after 後藤又兵衛（Goto Matabe). He was a samurai warrior around 17 century. Photo by Sarah
deer in the mist. Photo by One Time, One Meeting author Narastoryteller
Mysterious Field and Sakura
From the morning mist, the deer appear one by one.
Read more and see more photos on One Time One Meeting: Mysterious Field and Sakura.
Apr 21
Taken at the Yamato Bunka-kan museum, Nara, April 10th, 2012. Click any image to see a larger version. The day was overcast. My friend Cosmos went the day before and had sunshine. See her photos on Cosmos English Writing blog.
My friend Narastoryteller took some lovely photos of cherry trees in the rain. See Sakura, Sakura.
weeping cherry or "shidare zakura" 枝垂れ桜
Many Japanese will tell you, until you are sick of hearing it, that Japanese love the cherry blossom because it represents the short life of the samurai; the brief span of the blossom gives it a poignant beauty. But when I stood in front of this weeping cherry, I felt the cherry trees will be here for ever. Only I will not be.
Miharu Takizakura
I sit beside the fire and think of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring that I shall ever see.
Blogger Green Tomato posted photos of cherry trees she saw Here and There.
For still there are so many things that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring there is a different green.(“I Sit and Think” by J.R.R. Tolkien)
Sarah took photos of Spring in Full Swing in Nara and Osaka.
Stardust took photos of Sagi-ike Pond reflections with sakura.
Chambered Nautilus took photos of flowers in her garden before venturing out on a fine day in spring and taking photos in Kyoto and Osaka, including photos of the cherry trees along the Kamogawa river. She writes tanka (Japanese poetry) and even translates them into English for you, so there’s no excuse not to visit!
To be continued…
Apr 9
People in Japan love cherry blossom, especially standing or sitting under it and getting drunk just enjoying its intoxicating sight and perfume, which activity is called “hanami” 花見 (literally “flower-watching”).
Cherry blossom is rather later this year than usual. Must be global warming. Wait. Maybe global cooling? No, that idea was dumped in the ’70s. Climate change. That’s it. Must be.
Last year, the cherry blossom was in full bloom, or “mankai” 満開 for entrance ceremonies the first week of April.
Sakura - cherry blossom - blooming on a Kansai campus, April 6th, 2011
This year, full-bloom is this week in many parts of Kansai. Last week, Mike Rogers and friends had a hanami-party beside a Tokyo river, proving that you don’t need a whole lot of cherry blossom to have a great party.
But where to go to see the blossom at its best? Dates vary with geography and type of cherry tree.
Here’s the answer:the “hanami” app for iPhone and Android!
the "Hanami" app for iPhone and Android
日本全国1000か所以上のお花見スポットを収録。開花状況ひとめでわかる。
via 無料のiPhone＆Androidアプリ「お花見ナビ2012」- お花見特集2012 – Yahoo! JAPAN.
“1,000 + hanami spots in the palm of your hand. See the stage of blooming at a glance.”
(In Japanese only, maybe.)
One of my earliest memories in Japan is visiting a friend in April. Walking around the small town with his wife and his two young daughters, we came to a field with a big old cherry tree in it. We wandered over, sat down, popped the sake bottles, and just enjoyed watching the petals flutter down and the children playing in the warm sunshine. No blue sheets, no karaoke, no drunken shouting. Just the magic of the blossom and the sunlight playing on open hearts.
For some great photos and a little culture, and all in English, please visit
被爆桜 "hibaku sakura" Atomic-blasted cherry trees still bloom. Click image to go to the source
On NHK this Saturday morning, there was a short program about the “atomic-blasted cherry trees” 被爆桜 (hibaku-sakura). (Apparently this was a re-run of a May 4th program).
A number of cherry trees along the river in Hiroshima were directly hit by the atomic blast, August 6th, 1945. Yet, miraculously, they bloomed the following spring, lifting people’s hopes and hearts.
Mr. Yoshida was a young man of 15 in Hiroshima on that fateful day. He recalled seeing dead and dying people in the cherry-tree grove by the river, many propped up against the trees. “I guess this place is haunted by many souls,” he said as he visited the grove this spring. Mr. Yoshida was hospitalized with radiation poisoning after the blast. He lost all his hair. He was deeply moved to see the blooming trees when he finally left the hospital the following spring. Mr. Yoshida is now 81. His wife is 78. She was also injured by the blast on August 6th.
This kind of cherry tree, somei yoshino ソメイヨシノ, lives about 60-80 years. Approximately a human life-span. They are coming to the end of their lives.
I like this story. It celebrates life. For once, the viewers are not force-fed the Japanese humanist religion of “respect for others, solidarity with others”. This story is not about how we should remember the poor victims and show them our respect and sympathy: it is just a celebration of life, its power, its quiet, slow, peaceful, joyous expression. Something that I find cherry blossom expresses so well.
幹から幼い枝も生えてきていて、まだまだ生命力はありそうです
From the blog 団塊世代の人生時計
Here’s a video from 2009, about a girl’s school in Hiroshima who took cuttings from a cherry tree in the grounds of their school and sent them to every school in the country with a request and wishes for peace.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuwI3l8r36s’]
Personally, I like the cherry blossom when they start falling off the trees, falling like snow. So I really enjoyed Stardust’s photos and text about the “passing sakura”. Here’s one.
There are more beautiful photos and text at Stardust English Talk: Passing sakura.
To-ji Garden, Kyoto, before sunset - photo by stardust
Petals of Sakura floating in water are admired as 花筏-flower raft
via One Time One Meeting: Nothing Lasts Forever, Sakura・・・・.
More cherry blossom photos from one of my Nara lady English bloggers. This year, I can’t get enough of them. They waft glorious joyful love.
They prompt me to think back on my life on each occasion and jog memories of the year that has gone. Last year I saw them with a friend pushing her wheelchair. She is not here anymore but I feel sure she is looking at the same cherry blossoms.
Another Nara lady English blogger with beautiful photos. Cherry trees in full bloom. I’m so glad they are not restraining themselves.
A deer is quietly eating petals of Sakura. Photo by narastoryteller
Sakura or cherry blossoms have been long loved by people in Japan. Sakura bloom and fall. And they love from the beginning (even before the beginning) to the end, every phase of Sakura. They see beauty in those blooming Sakura, and admire scattering Sakura as 花吹雪‐flower blizzard. Fallen petals on the water are appreciated as 花筏‐flower raft.
A journalist (Gilder) seeks out a young black accused of rape, follows him and his family around for a few years and comes up with a devastating critique of the modern welfare state in the U.S.A.Although Gilder insists everything in t…
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