Tom in Japan: April 2007

Last week, I also had the chance to go to Kyoto with my friend, Tomomi. As we found, there are some streets in Kyoto which are lined with Japanese Sukura or cherry blossom trees.

Here are some Sakura overhanging the street.

Please bear with me, as Tomomi did. I took many pictures of the Sakura.

As you can see, some of the Sakura blossoms are white.

Others are pink.

These Sakura are on the way to Maruyama park, which is like a Sukura hub.

Here is a wide-shot from along the road.

I like how in this shot the Sakura seem to cascade into the water.

There were many people taking pictures of the Sakura that day. Also, it rained a little bit. Here is a picture of someone taking a picture in the rain.

Here, he is reviewing his shot.

This is a shot outside of Maruyama park.

Here is a gate inside Maruyama park.

Here is the large tree in the center of the park. That day, we saw a TV crew at the park. They told me that they were from the BBC taping the Sakura.

Here is a shot from the road back to the station.

Outside the station there was an elderly man selling kittens.

If that kitten looks cranky, it is probably because it is jealous of the two other kittens fast asleep right in front of it.

I guess the time at which we went was a little early in the season, so that means I will probably go back, and there will probably be more Sakura pictures...

Last week, I got to Kanzawa prefecture with my host mother and her friend. It took about 7 hours to get there by bike, train, and bus, but it was worth the trip. Here is a picture of the train station.

There was a very large gate out side of the station. I like this picture because the man in the foreground looks like he is "really smoking."

On the final leg of the trip, the bus let us off by these steps. You can tell by the umbrellas that there was some rain.

The steps led to "Kenrokuen" park, which was the reason we came. It is considered one of the "Three Great Gardens of Japan." I must admit, even though it rained, it was still pretty great.

Her is someone tidying up the place. Everything was well-kept.

You can barely see a small stream in this picture.

Because of the rain, I was able to see some very vivid greens.

Here is a closer shot of a stream.

The place is scattered with stone lanterns, free-standing gates, and buildings.

There were also bridges.

That is a plum tree at the top of the picture, I believe.

I like this picture a whole lot.
Please excuse my lazy pun-writing.

I don't know exactly what I would call the "small tower" in the picture below. I guess, "small tower" will suffice.

Near the "small tower" was this sign that says a famous haiku was written on this spot. Perhaps it is about the "small tower," when someone helps me translate it, I will let you know.

Here is a free-standing gate, and another "small tower." I think it must be a lantern by where it is positioned. That probably makes the haiku make more sense.

Here is another stream.

All of these streams fed into a lake that many people were taking pictures in front of--so many that I couldn't not get a great shot. Nonetheless, here is an old man adjacent to the over-crowed area, looking on across the lake.

This is a tree.

My guess is that this is some kind of statue of a warrior. "Kenrokuen" is positioned outside of Kanazawa castle, so there could be a connection there.

Off to the right of the foot of the statue there was this rock. At the foot of the rock there was a leaf. I like how you can see the reflection of the warrior stature in the water.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It had started thundering at this point, so I was hustling to meet the rest of my party who was waiting for me, but I still took the time to capture this shot. This is from the opposite side of the lake, where the old man was looking.