Sakura Season

Haiku,

composed by someone in the family

who wants to remain anonymous:

sakura blossoms

delicate flowers falling

short-lived paradise

I had a Japanese lesson this afternoon, and sent Nathan out to Yoyogi Park with the camera. We are at the height of cherry blossom week here. I am hoping there will be a few left for Bob and June to see when they come in later this week. The trees are glorious.

As for the blue plastic tarps under the trees: the Japanese workers typically send their lowliest employee to stake out the company claim under the trees, sit there, and wait for the lunch party to begin. Then, true to form, the Japanese party hard under the cherry blossoms. Some stay all afternoon. Nathan commented when he returned home that there were plenty of inebriated people at the park, sitting, drinking, walking around or trying to throw Frisbees. The trees at the little park up the street are also breathtakingly beautiful. Nathan and I were there the other night, looking through his sky scope from under the pink blossoms. It is truly a fleeting, magnificent, and stunning event, the cherry blossoms in Japan.