Revenge on the pink

My last blog entry saw me in a sad state of affairs: a sakura season without sakura. But if there is a good for every bad than it was definitely worth the rain and the lack of blossoms to have the first weekend of golden week be as magnificent as it was! But first a peek into the previous week:  Iwadonosan and its little castle site in all its pink glory, a beautiful pink and white tree of flowers at the side of the road and my new car under the sakura at school (its name is Kei… it’s very new and doesn’t yet have a personality.)

Anyways, that weekend a had a late night phone call and things got a bit rough after already worn down by my new work load I received sad news from home that grandpa had passed away, a cold and some rain followed this so by the time golden week came I was ready for a break. At first, I tried to fly home and be with my family, but as this became impossible I was glad that I had a trip coming up with Sheena to Tohoku. The purpose of said trip was to see the three famous spots for sakura in northern Honshu but the weeks leading up to this were cold and bleak and it appeared as if a second weekend without sakura was upon us. I don’t know how it happened, it should have been impossible, but a miracle happened: the last few days before our trip were not just warm they were hot and the sakura bloomed! It was a gift not wasted, but first I will talk about Saturday.

 

So Saturday I awoke to the first clear sky in weeks and rushed to Fujiyoshida to capture the iconic image of the pagoda, the sakura and Mt. Fuji, somewhat of the triple threat in the Japanese photography world. It was the perfect morning and everyone was so friendly because it was clear and warm and sakura is gorgeous! 

Then I met up with Sheena and we took our revenge on Nagano but returning to see the sakura at the Takato castle ruins. Last time were there it was cold and rainy and there was not a blossom in sight so miserably I couldn’t even manage a photo. This time, while a bit past peak, it was warm and sunny and very pink! It was so lovely with a warm spring breeze that brought down a shower of pedals around us as we strolled about taking pictures, gazing at the pond of petals and tree shadows and eventually resting under a big tree to eat sakura ice cream and watch it rain pink on us; it was magical!

Then we went to this cool temple at the foot of these mountains and I found the prettiest little pond that reflected the sakura back at us like it was a shadowy mirror! Captivating!  We finished the day with finding some daffodils and taking pictures of that before going out for dinner of the regions specialty: sauce katsu! It was delicious!

 

At the end of the day I was content and warm and happy and it was only the first day! After we went to Tohoku by shinkansen for two days of more perfect sakura! The miracle sakura! And eventually finished the week off with a day in the flowers and a day at a festival where gigantic kites were flown in honour of first born sons! I began to remember why I loved Japan and slowly the homesickness washed away.

A weekend without sakura

Last year this time, found Rhee and me in shorts and t-shirts basking in the sun and tossing around sakura pedals. This year, eventually at least, the sakura did come out but the weather has been gloomy and rather cold in contrast to the clear skyed springs Japan often brags about. So my plans for a month of sakura were a tiny bit derailed. Sheena had planned this amazing weekend for us in Nagano that would involve nothing but friends and sakura, and while it was still a lovely weekend, thanks to the friends, the sakura failed to realize that they too had been invited...

We got up super early and caught a train to Tokyo where we met up with a bus and went north through Saitama and Gunma to Nagano. Our first stop was the ruins of Tatsuoka Castle. It was very rainy and a bit cold so no pictures but it had a neat aspect that would have been impossible to capture with a picture unless I was a bird anyways: it is one of only two fortresses to be built in the shape of a star. Next was the ruins of Komoro castle which had it been in full bloom would have been lovely. The old fortified walls framed the little park beautifully and in the centre was a neat little shrine with the prettiest koi pond!

 

Ueda castle was the highlight of my day because it was the main keep of the Sanada clan. A family of samurai that lived during Takeda Shingen's time that was famous for Sanada Yukimura, a samurai known to possibly have been the best swordsman of his time! Now just ruins with a gate and a small guard tower, it was once a small castle that twice fended off armies the outnumbered them, including the son of the warlord who would eventually unify Japan. Context, that makes them pretty strong and awesome! Anyways, the rain was slowly dying off and as I leaped from the bus I found one sad little blossom doing it's best. The sad things was all the blossoms were so close to blooming... they just needed one good sunny day and they'd be there... But I amused myself by eating chicken karage with Chelsea and Sheena and posing with a guy dressed up as Sanada Yukimura and going to the little shrine dedicated to the family. After our stop was a little town where we warmed up with coffee and then dinner which was shabu shabu this delicious pork hot pot that we prepared ourselves while sharing a few bottles of beer!

 

The evening's entertainment was a reconstruction of Takada castle, in Niigata prefecture. at night where had there been cherry blossoms it would have been all lit up in pink. I must give it some credit, for even with out my sakura, the castle was gorgeous and the grounds pleasant for the evening had taken on a warmth that had been lacking in the day. We walked around the castle grounds a bit and then settled next to a long red bridge where I took a few long exposure photos I was quite happy with. The atmosphere was the best of the day there!

We spent the night at this hotel in the mountains where there was still snow and barely squeezed in a bath before, exhausted, we fell right to sleep. The next morning the sun was shining where we were up north in Nagano and we were able to see what Zenkoji temple looked like in Spring as previously we were there when it snowed. It was very beautiful!

Traveling back home south the weather turned on us and it clouded over again. At the failure of finding any sakura in the designated places our tour guide felt sorry for us and took us quite out of the way in order to find some. We did eventually in Iida. There the sakura was very beautiful and we saw two very old trees that were something like 300 years old. It was nice to have that bring an end to our trip.

 

We did stop at one more place, Takato castle, that was so vacant of  sakura that I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures so we left it at that and hoped to return when it was in bloom as it wasn't that far from home. The way home was a bit agonizing for we would be driving right by my house with no hope at stopping until we cleverly convinced the tour guide to let us off near a station where we could travel home just a few stops. Thank the gods or else we would have had to track three hours just to return to where we had come from. The tour guide was so kind and helpful! All in all it was a nice weekend with Sheena, Kevin and Chelsea but there are prayers for sakura in my mind for future trips!

If trees were cotton candy

So last time on 'Sarah goes to Japan' it was before dawn and the first blossoms had greeted my loneliness. Like popcorn the little buds burst open and by Thursday under a brilliant blue sky I went to explore my wondrous pink world of spring. And done with the purple prose. So I have gotten back into the school routine with one minor alteration; I now teach at seven schools instead of four... it's a bit exhausting but like any challenge I will overcome it. And with afternoons like the one I spent collecting this photos I cannot complain. One my transfer from one school to the next I snagged the first few, the trees from home and a shrine nearby. Then after school I walked down this little road of cherry blossoms and hung out a shrine before hiking up Iwadono-san and proceeding to spend two hours flaked out in the spring warmth and reading my book until the sun set and the lanterns lit up. It was a great afternoon!

 

 

 

 

The moment they peak

the fall begins;

a sacrifice for beauty.