Cherry Blossoms in the 2nd week

The temperature of this week is getting higher over 20 degrees Celsius, and it makes flowers to grow fast.  Cherry Blossoms in my neighboring area is also blooming so fast, though some cherry blossoms trees are still asleep, as if Spring has not come yet.

They recognize the time to bloom by sensing the temperature, and depending on the age or the conditions of growth, they attract us with beautiful light pink color for around two weeks.

Please enjoy the transition of coloring in many types of flowers through my pictures.

This weekend will provide with good opportunities for many people to cheer up with parties under the trees every where, so called "hanami".

"Hanami" has been an old traditional event for aristocrats since around 9th century.  In 16th century, the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi had held large scale "hanami" parties with 5000 people; another party in 4 years later, 1300 people had gotten together, though they were from Samurai class.

Ordinary people could have enjoyed "Hanami" in 18th century, during Tokugawa Shogunate. 

These days, "Hanami" is one of the typical Spring events in Japan.

I am a person who enjoys the visual transitions; blooming, petals falling down and vivid green leaves, reminding me of the life cycle and the fate.

Cherry Blossoms: the early version

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Today, temperature was going up to 20 degrees Celsius.

Cherry blossoms has just started blooming and bringing the atmosphere of Spring.

The two pictures below are shot near my home, and the last one was taken at Saitama city where I visited on Thursday, March 26.

No "hanami" party in those pictures.
Maybe in the next weekend, we may see ohanami parties in some parks.


This cherry blossoms usually bloom first in my neighboring area.
This tree seems to lead other trees to bloom.

This street will be full of cherry blossoms and it looks like arcade.
Right now, it is just the beginning, and later on,
it will be a gorgeous blooming arcade.












This tree is located on Ohmiya campus of Shibaura Institute of Technology.

Flowers in my balcony

These are the flowers my wife is taking care of, and blooming beautifully.

Especially, dendrobium (the first picture below) is blooming this year; it haven't bloomed a couple of years.

My wife tells me that flowers could listen to us
if we talk to them with love, then they get bloomed.

Spring has come in my neighboring paths

Many flowers tell us the spring has just come !  The temperatures are changing day by day, we have several warmer days and followed by another cold days; it shows the transition of two seasons and we feel spring coming.

This area is a popular place for flowers, especially in the left bottom, there will be very beautiful cherry blossoms in 3 weeks, though they have only sprouts now.  You will be surprised at the large differences later.

Equinox

March 20th is an equinox and the national holiday.  September 23rd is also another equinox and holiday as well.

Japanese people used to celebrate the spring equinox to pray for good harvest in this coming  year.

In Japan, there have been two traditions with both the spring and the autumn equinoxes.
The first one: to worship the holy spirits of the royal family of successive Japanese Emperors.
The second : to worship the ancestors at the graveyard; tradition from Buddhism.

In Buddhism, equinoxes are called " O-Hegun" phonetically in Japanese, meaning reaching out to the Buddhist deliverance or the sense of salvation.


Nowadays, many Japanese families enjoy "Ohagi": sticky rice cake covered with mashed red beans or yellow flour powder, seen in the left side:

Ohagi Phote in http://shop.eirakuya.co.jp/ja/item/114/

Flowers in my house; that seems to celebrate the spring equinox

Birthday Lunch at a Sushi Restaurat

March 15th is the birthday of my mother in law, and we met at a sushi restaurant, named "Midori Zushi", one of the best sushi restaurant in Tokyo with very delicious raw fishes and reasonable price.

First, my wife and her sister planned to celebrate their mother's birthday with both families, 10 people altogether, but some were busy and couldn't come there.

Finally, five people got together and enjoyed splendid lunch.

What we ordered were Sheff's Choice for each and one dish served (from upper left) mashed tuna,  conger, crab, (in the second row) scallops, ark shell, egg, shrimp, egg, sea urchins, salmon roe, liver sauce, (in the bottom row) whirlpool kelp (seaweeds with thier eggs), tuna, red snapper, and fatty tuna.

We could see plum blossoms as well in front of Sushi restaurant.

Cherry Blossoms in my garden

Spring is coming ! Cherry blossoms in my garden shows flowering and brings Spring.
It is a kind of Cherry ｂlossoms but a little different type from those usually called "Sakura".
Most popular cherry blossoms in Japan is "Prunus Yedoensis: (Yoshino cherry)", and  another popular one is "Double Cherry Fｌower" (someone may imagine the item in Super Mario Games).


By the way, the cherry blossoms in my garden is called "Okka-may Sacklla"(prunus incamp), which is smaller than common Cherry blossoms and is flowering earlier.


The left picture is the cherry blossoms in my garden.

The left bottom is my tiny garden and cherry blossoms is almost the end of this picture.

The right bottom is the different angle of cherry blossoms.

So we will enjoy the sequence of Cherry blossoms from now in 4 weeks, starting with Okka-may sacklla, then Yoshino cherry and finally double cherry flower.

In a few weeks later, I will post that pictures of several kinds of cherry blossoms around my house and you will see how they are beautiful.

March 3rd, celebrating the Doll's Day by "chirashi zushi"

We celebrated March 3rd with Chirashi Zushi; it was a one of the traditions in which people have celebrated for Doll's Festival.
 Chirashi Zushi is a kind of sushi, which is vinegar rice with thin strips of egg, pieces of raw fish, vegetables arranged on top.

Chirashi Zushi

Not only Doll's Festival but also plum makes us feel like Spring is coming.

White Plum

the Dolls Festival

March 3 rd is the day of "the Doll's Festival", celebrating and praying for health and happiness of girls, especially daughters in a certain family.  If the family doesn't have any daughter, it doesn't celebrate that day; actually my parents never celebrated that day, because I have only an elder brother.

In Japanese, phonetically, it is pronounced as "hinah matz lee", meaning baby-bird festival.

The history of the Doll's Festival is unclear, it had begun at 1000 years ago, but it had got popular about 300 years ago.
Usually, people decorate dolls as seen below, and take special food (rice based cakes and snacks) and drink white rice wine.

In picture below, in my house we have only two dolls; male and female, it is very simple and there are only two which maybe a prince and a princess.
I think this type of decoration was made in the early beginning of  this festival, and it simply imitated the situation in which very young couples got married just like kids playing.

However, the picture in the left shows full set of dolls in the place where my mother is now staying at.  They look like gorgeous as if it was when festival got popular 300 years ago.

From this picture, we may learn how the ancient aristocracy was and what celebrities would have been as represented by the dolls.
In addition to those observations,  the families were hoping to a young bride and groom that a good marriage would bring happiness and their prosperity of a large family with many subordinates.

All dolls are made by tiny clothes precisely manufactured and hand crafted which shows the quality of Japanese technology even in ancient ages as well.