Cherry Blossoms and Airplanes
The cherry blossoms are here and they are nice! This has been a strange year for them. They were predicted to arrive quite early this year, around the beginning of March, but then a cold spell pushed that back, and then they arrived a few days late. Weird. That is speaking of the Yoshino Cherry, which is the most popular kind. The first blooming kind, Kawazu Cherry, bloomed around the end of February and lasted much longer this year than usual.
I snapped a few photos with my wife's smartphone the other day when we were visiting her parent's house. We took a walk around the neighborhood and to a local school, so I'm going to include this in #wednesdaywalk by @tattoodjay.
These are unedited, straight from the phone. I don't think there is enough data put in the photos to really improve them much. Oh well. I just added a border. (And then I realized I forgot to save the version with a border. Go figure.) Next year I'll have to be more prepared with my good camera.
This is a small farming town, but you can see that even here they have enough cherry blossom trees to completely cover over the street. The trees are expensive and Yoshino Cherry only has a lifespan of about 50 years, but in many cities larger companies will donate the trees to the city so the taxpayers are spared. I'm going to guess that's the case here, but I don't know for sure.
The weather has been amazingly good. It is already starting to feel a bit humid. Humidity in Japan in summer is not fun. But humidity won't really kick into high gear until after rainy season around June. Anyway, otherwise it is really nice right now.
Not many people were out. Like I said, it's a small farming community, so I'm sure a lot of people were working. We didn't see anyone else out enjoying the blossoms. There are some more scattered here and there, but this street leading to the elementary school is one of the main places for them.
After we enjoyed the blossoms, we went to the school and let our youngest son fly his plane. My wife's cousin makes these things. He has an entire room of his house dedicated to making various planes and gliders. He gave this one to our son, who has been enjoying it nonstop. My wife took a video here you can watch.
After that, we went back. Our older son was too busy playing with his cousins to enjoy the walk with us, but when we got back we learned he had got to the school to look for us. Luckily it's a small town, so there is no getting lost. We just waited and he wandered back.
Anyway, it was a great day!
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |
Que bello lugar.
God, that is beyond beautiful. I can't wait to see these with my own eyes.
It is really incredible. I hope you can witness it yourself someday. This is just a small sample. Most bigger cities plant many many more.
I can't wait. We had planned to visit Japan this year but my wife got sick so we had to put our travels on hold for a while. Hopefully in 2025!
I remember when I was a kid my dad had a gas powered airplane that you could fly around on a string. It was pretty cool. A bit of an odd concept looking back now though. The blossoms are beautiful!
Those gas-powered planes on strings were really popular for awhile. At a park in my hometown they built a place just for flying those planes. By the time I was a kid it was little used, but my mom would tell stories of how crowded and busy it was when she was younger.
Really? That is very interesting. We had to take ours to the local middle school parking lot.
I've been lucky to catch the cherry blossoms in DC a few times but it looks like Japan would be something else entirely, those shots are lovely.
They really do go all out for it here, planting the trees so thick that the entire city turns pink and white for a week or two.
Lucky you guys to have all this on your doorstep every year, and without the crowds!
Nature's payment for scaring us half to death with earthquakes for the rest of the year haha. In the city I live near Nagoya it's rare to find cherry blossom places without a crowd, so I was kind of surprised that no one was out here. I may have to start visiting the inlaws every year at this time.
Looks like he had some fun with the gilder. I loved those things when I was a kid, but they were made of balsa wood back then!
Beautiful cherry blossoms! I heard Japan is sending 250 Cherry trees to replace the older one that are dying and being removed. Beautiful trees.
250 to replace ones in DC? That's a nice gesture. I heard the cherry blossom area in DC is amazing to see.
That is so beautiful how the cherry trees make a canopy over the street.
That plane looks like a LOT of fun.
Yeah I love how they do that. It really makes them stand out.
Whoa, I didn't know cherry trees have a life span. Or is that their blooming life span?
Hmm... that's a good question. I think it is the tree lifespan itself. After around 50 years they simply start to die. I don't know enough about trees to know if that is a consequence of being a hybrid tree or what. Other types of cherry trees can last hundreds of years, but the someiyoshino are very short-lived.
Thank you for sharing your Sakura photography. Your Sakuraflower photos are some of my favourite ones. I like the video too. It's fun to play with toy airplanes. Did your wife's cousin make it!? Wow, that looks very good.
Glad you enjoy them 😃 Yeah, it seems like he loves building models and toy planes. It's an interesting hobby. My youngest also loves building things, so maybe he will be the same.
Fly to the moon 😄🙌🙌🥳🌸🌸🌸
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