{"id":678,"date":"2010-04-19T14:37:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T05:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/?p=678"},"modified":"2010-04-19T14:37:13","modified_gmt":"2010-04-19T05:37:13","slug":"sakura-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/2010\/04\/19\/sakura-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Sakura 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sakura for 2010 has come and gone. Well, I assume it is gone since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not actually in Japan at this time. When I left last week, the wind and the rain were taking their toll on the trees.<\/p>\n

I was able to enjoy sakura a little bit this year, although I think the peak time was probably when I was in between traveling to and from the UK just prior to traveling to the US. On a side note, I will say that I am very relieved that I got out of the UK before Eyjafjallajokull<\/a> erupted. (Say Eyjafjallajokull fast three times, come on, I DARE you!). So, although I missed the peak, I did get some early viewing in and some night viewing.<\/p>\n

\"Sakura<\/p>\n

Luckily, Yahoo! Japan<\/a> has an entire guide to cherry blossoms<\/a> on their website, so you can see EXACTLY what the conditions are throughout the country. There are also other websites dedicated to watching the progress of the blossoms, such as this one for Nagoya<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tomo and I went to Tsuramai Park<\/a> early in the season for our own little \u00e8\u0160\u00b1\u00e8\u00a6\u2039 (\u00e3\u0081\u00af\u00e3\u0081\u00aa\u00e3\u0081\u00bf – hanami – cherry blossom viewing party). As always, you can count on festival foods \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the really unhealthy stuff. We had \u00e3\u0081\u2039\u00e3\u201a\u2030\u00e3\u0081\u201a\u00e3\u0081\u2019 (karaage \u00e2\u20ac\u201c fried chicken), \u00e7\u201e\u00bc\u00e3\u0081\u009d\u00e3\u0081\u00b0 (yakisoba \u00e2\u20ac\u201c fried soba noodles), and were tempted by \u00e3\u0081\u0178\u00e3\u0081\u201c\u00e7\u201e\u00bc\u00e3\u0081\u008d (takoyaki \u00e2\u20ac\u201c squid in a dough ball). And, of course, beer. Public consumption of alcohol is stilled allowed in Japan. I wonder when that will end?<\/p>\n

A week later I went out on my own on a lonely Saturday night to \u00e5\u00b1\u00b1\u00e5\u00b4\u017d\u00e5\u00b7\u009d (\u00e3\u201a\u201e\u00e3\u0081\u00be\u00e3\u0081\u2013\u00e3\u0081\u008d\u00e3\u0081\u0152\u00e3\u201a\u008f \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Yamazakigawa). I knew that Yamazakigawa had illumination and I thought that the path started near Aratamabashi, but when I found the river and started walking the correct direction (courtesy of my trusty iPhone<\/a> GPS) I was underwhelmed. There were lots of cherry trees but very low level lighting. It was cold as well, and I was bundled up. I kept walking though, knowing that there should be something more dramatic. Eventually I found a mob of people and overly illuminated cherry trees. Clearly I was there.<\/p>\n

Sakura is a great time of year in Japan, signaling the beginning of springtime. Once I returned from the UK, spring was busting out all over. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that when I get back just before Golden Week, Spring will have sprung completely.<\/p>\n

Enjoying Tsuramai (or Tsurama) Park.<\/p>\n

\"Sakura<\/p>\n

\"Sakura<\/p>\n

\"Sakura<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The underwhelming night view along Yamazakigawa…<\/p>\n

\"Sakura<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

… that fortunately got better further down the path.<\/p>\n

\"Sakura<\/p>\n

\"Sakura<\/p>\n

\"Sakura<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I was meandering through the streets trying to find my way to a different subway station, saved again by my iPhone GPS, I stumbled across some interesting architecture including this overgrown gerbil habitat. Interesting.<\/p>\n

\"Habitrail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sakura for 2010 has come and gone. Well, I assume it is gone since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not actually in Japan at this time. When I left last week, the wind and the rain were taking their toll on the trees. I was able to enjoy sakura a little bit this year, although I think the peak … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sakura 2010”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-experiences","category-photo-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}