Fuchu no Mori Park at Higashi-Fuchu

Sakura lane.

A mother with a child on the back of her bicycle heads back toward the fountain. Click to enlarge the photo.


A view from the side.


Petals in the gutter.


Fuchu no Mori Koen--for information in English

Sakura by Car

There are street after street of sakura near Ajinomoto Stadium at Tobitakyu, Chofu.

Brown-eared Bubul Enjoying Sakura

The Littlest Sakura Tree

I took photos of this little sakura tree in the spring when it was in full bloom. I pointed out the mark on the wall. It was made from a dirt speck on my camera lens. I took these photos with a different camera.

Look! There is a mark on the wall now! Sakura trees are spectacular any time of the year, aren't they? Click to enlarge the photos. Click here for the old post.

Neighborhood Trees

Sakura tree in the park.

Maple tree in a field.

Not sure what this tree is.

Not Quite in Full Bloom

In the park down the street, the sakura trees are not quite in full bloom.


Branch by branch, they're blooming at different rates.

More Sakura! I Can't Help It!

Even the smallest tree is spectacular! This one is near an apartment house.

See that dot near the lamp post? It follows me around. Could be a Moonshadow (an old song), but more likely it's a piece of dust /dirt on the camera lens. I keep forgetting about it because it doesn't always show up.

Like here. That dot is lost in the tree.

It's hard to resist taking photos of sakura!

Those sakura trees are in a neighborhood park. The fields are our truck farmer's. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Full Color

When Papa left for work this morning, he said it was going to be a warm day and a good day to view the cherry blossoms. Maybe. Any day is a good day to view cherry blossoms. Even when it's raining! Yesterday was a good day. These pictures were taken yesterday. Click to enlarge.

There is other spring color. This is momokiku, peach chrysanthemum. The flowers look like chrysanthemums. They are a good shrub to put along a fence because they don't grow to be large. They are blooming now along this street. The one in our garden isn't. It might not be getting enough sun.

This shrub is called red robin. New growth is red. This shrub will grow to be very big.

Ours in our garden are doing very well. They were pruned in January and have new red growth.

Sakura Leaves

Cherry tree leaves are falling now. This leaf was on the sidewalk. It was beside a door in the sidewalk. I didn't photograph the door and didn't really notice it in this picture until now. It was probably for workers to open to work on pipes.

Falling Blossoms

Little Brother is going to a hanami, cherry blossoom viewing picnic, this weekend. The sakura trees in our neighborhood have already bloomed and the blossoms are now falling. The trees are not as full as they were, but there are still blossoms on the trees. Falling cherry blossoms are nice, too.

Already Blooming

 

The cherry trees in our park are already blooming. The blossom viewing party, ohanami, is next week! By then the blossoms will be falling.

Sakura Mochi

Shops start selling sakura mochi in February. We buy it for Girls' Day, hina matsuri. This comes from a shop called Akebono. The box is nicely wrapped.

That's a cherry blossom on top. Those are real leaves, too. Some people eat the leaves. I do. They are soaked in salt water. Do not eat leaves, though! You may not pick the right ones. Click on the label below for more posts about sakura.

About.com/Japanese Language-- hina matsuri song

Kids Web Japan--The Missing Doll manga for Girls' Day

Late Bloom

While sitting under this tree, we looked up to find

cherry blossoms! Rather late and alone and unusual. At least we had never seen a clump of blossoms on a tree full of green leaves before.
Showa Kinen Koen

Clean Campaign

This poster was near the entrance of a small train station. It encourages people to remember their manners and not leave their bicycles near the station.

This is a close-up of the poster. (I brightened it a little.) A sakura blossom is being crushed by a bicycle tire. Sakura is a symbol of spring, of new beginnings. Papa says sakura is the heart of Japan. Maybe other Japanese people feel the same way.

Check the labels below or do a blog search for other clean campaigns and recycling. If this is your visit to this blog, check March and April posts for more pictures of sakura trees and sakura products.

Cherry Blossom Ice Cream

We had soft cream when we went to Jindai Botanical Garden the other day. There was only one sakura (cherry blossom) soft cream left. We all took a taste. The one on the right was the sakura soft cream. It had a light taste. It didn't taste like cherries. Cherry blossoms have a different flavor. The one on the left was strawberry.

Cherry Blossom Cake

This is Baumkuchen, a German cake. It is usually a plain yellow cake. See the sakura on the package? This one is sakura or cherry blossom flavored. It doesn't taste like cherries.

Look at the tiny layers.

Opening Ceremony

This is not a uniform. Big Sister's new high school does not require a uniform. This is Big Sister's suit for her opening ceremony for high school. The suit had pants not a skirt.

Students have an opening ceremony when they start kindergarten, elementary school, junior high, high school and university. Everyone dresses up in school uniforms or suits. Big Sister wore a fancy pink dress at her first grade opening ceremony. She wore her uniform for her junior high opening ceremony. Little Brother wore a shirt and slacks for his elementary school opening ceremony. All the other boys wore suits. Short pants with suit jackets was the style then.

Chairs were set up in the gym for the opening ceremony. The rows on the left were for the new tenth grade students. The chairs on the right were for the string club that played music before the ceremony. As the new tenth graders came in by class, they played Pachabel's Canon.

This picture was taken from the hallway. This is the sports field where they have gym class. Sakura or cherry blossoms were still in bloom.