last sakura walk

This year's sakura was way too quick.

I took a break from packing on Monday, and shot this video (click on the photo).

The weeping cherry trees were beautiful!

Am gonna miss this neighborhood...

By Wednesday, most of the petals had fallen.

The weeping trees were still nice though.

The little pond in Suigetsu Park was filled with pink petals!

Spring is way too short...

sakura walks

Monday, the weather was really cloudy and since I ran some errands, I didn't really get to check out any cherry blossoms.

Tuesday, the winds were krazy (like a typhoon) and rainy. AND we had a cold snap...brr!

Today, I went to check out my "usual" spots...(If you click on the photo, it should run the short video.)

Most of the cherry blossoms were still intact, but there were quite a bit of petals on the ground.

Tomorrow is supposed to be better weather, so I hope to check out more cherry blossoms...

sakura walks

Thursday, the weather was forecast for rain in the afternoon, so I got out and about just before lunch.

Asahigaoka...each house has a cherry tree planted in front, making for a great neighborhood to walk during this time of year. (I cropped out the dude who was crouching down on the road to take his shot...he got tooted at several times by several cars!!)

A little up the road is this area...I want to be the houses facing these group of trees...beautiful, yeah?!

I saw someone's photo somewhere on social media and copied the idea using the traffic mirror and the trees...

This walkway in front of a school has many cherry trees and makes a pretty "tunnel".

I went back to take a photo of this weeping cherry which I had seen the other day but was too chicken to ask to take a photo of it then because it looked like they were having some kind of dignitary type event there...

Sonpachiyakujin's weeping cherry looked more white than pink.

Then I went through Suigetsu Park.

Kinda grey but at least I was able to check them out before the rains.

sakura walk

Monday, I went to check out the various spots around our area for sakura (cherry blossoms).

I'd say it was about 50% in bloom.

One area near the Minoo station has replaced some of the older trees with new ones and they also fixed the sidewalk area around the trees.

It's a great time to be in Japan. A great time to be out and about.

wonky

The weather is all wonky.

One day it is sunny, the next rainy and then freezing the next...

I really don't think we'll get a true "autumn" this year.

Proof...when I went past this neighborhood on Saturday, all the leaves had pretty much fallen.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch "colorful" trees somewhere...wish me luck & I hope the weather is "normal" where you are.

sakura walk

Monday was quite sunny, "hot" even.

So, I went to check out the cherry blossoms. This was near the school that had that great mural.

And then I got this shot nearing Satsukiyama (Mt Satsuki). Big windows mean big reflections...

Here's a shot of the road up to Satsukiyama (Mt Satsuki).

And then the kannon (statue of peace) in the park at Satsukiyama (Mt Satsuki).

Tuesday it rained and was forecasted for high winds overnight. I don't think the blossoms will hold until the weekend.

Hope your week is going well.

friday saturday sunday

Friday, after an appointment, I headed to Minoo to have lunch at Per Caffee Bianco.

Salad with proscuitto, pasta with pork belly in a creamed pea sauce and this cute cappuccino...1150 yen.

The picture is of our city's mascot or yuru-chara (you-roo-kya-ra) as they are called here. Yuzuru-kun.

Then I went to check out the cherry blossoms in the subdivision close to the Hankyu Minoo station.

This year, I've been into taking reflections of the cherry blossoms in car windows....

Saturday was a beautiful day.

Satoshi and I went to the family grave in Kyoto. And then we went to visit MIL, but not before checking out some areas for their cherry blossoms.

We walked along the Kamo River. Many people were out for a walk, riding their bicycles and some just sitting along the riverside.

And then found ourselves at the Kyoto Imperial Palace, where Tamakikat and I had been a couple of days ago.

What a difference clear blue skies made! Tons of people were out and about.

Satoshi admitted that this was the first time he had been here during this season.

Sunday, Satoshi had to work.

The weather was overcast, there was also some drops of rain here and there.

I went out for a walk and checked out the area near our place called Asahigaoka.

There was even a tree draping itself from the top of the bridge all the way down to the river.

Spring has come, the cherry blossoms have bloomed, it's all coming and going quickly.

I swear the "good seasons" (Spring and Autumn) are getting shorter and shorter. And the not-so good ones (Summer and Winter) are getting longer and longer....hope to get out to see more in the coming days.

Have a nice week!

sakura walks

Monday I went walking around and checked on the huge cherry tree in Sakurai.

It was beautiful.

There were also some weeping cherry. I liked this one, bright pink.

Most of the other cherry blossoms look almost white.

Tuesday, I went to Mukogawa.

Yesterday, I walked to Sakurai and on the way, came across a tree near an apartment building.

I like when I can capture a sun beam.

The area in front of the Hankyu Minoo station was fixed up. Really nice now.

The roof of the bus/taxi area has a nice design of fall foliage, a symbol of Minoo.

Next to the Hankyu Minoo station is a new information office and an area for "ashi-yu" (foot bath).

When I passed by these ladies were happily chatting away.

Been interested in shooting shadows recently. Love the shadows that the sakura trees cast.

The neighborhood near the Hankyu Minoo station is about 70% in bloom.

Then in the afternoon, I went to the area above our apartment where every house has a sakura tree in front of it, Asahigaoka.

This area is always beautiful, never disappoints.

Lots of walking, lots of bonding with nature.

karinto manju

The other day I walked past Korakudo (which I've written about here, and here) and had to take another look at their sign outside.

It said "karinto manju"...Karinto is a sweet deep fried treat made from flour and sugar. Manju is a steamed bun filled with sweet bean paste.

I usually don't go walking with money (because I'll buy stuff (I don't need)), but wanting to try this I brought some money with me and picked some up. 450 yen (about US$4.50) for 5.

These are brilliant. The dough is made with kokuto (black sugar) and the inside is filled with sweet bean paste.

The instructions say that they are best on the day you buy them, but if for some reason you can't finish them and need to put them in the refridge, just heat them up in the toaster to crisp and warm them up.

The sweetness from the karinto kind of overpowers the sweet bean paste but these are crunchy and addicting....I need some tea.

On the second day, I didn't warm them up and ate them as is. They were still quite crisp though the kokuto (black sugar) flavor wasn't as strong.

On Saturday, it was sunny and it was nice to see so many people walking about and checking out the sakura. I shot this short video on a side street where there weren't too many people.

minoo & ikeda

Last Saturday, the weather was semi-perfect. Sunny but the wind was icy.

Satoshi and I walked to Ferdinand and had breakfast, then walked through Suigetsu Park and came home.

Then for lunch, we went up to the area near Minoo station and discovered this park, Ashihara Park. (You would think after living here for nearly 10 years we would've known about this park.)

There was a tiny pony near a person selling flowers and plants and the cherry blossom had started to bloom.

The one thing we noticed was that there were a lot of people fishing at Ashihara Park. (I wonder what they were catching...)

Nearly a week later, we've had some rainy and windy days, many cold days.

Yesterday after the rain stopped, I went out for a walk and found more trees in bloom.

Up near Asahigaoka, which I've posted about before here and here and here, the trees are nearly in full bloom.

I also found a house with a LOT of tulips...beautiful!

Now, if we can only get some sun with this...

coffee warabi mochi

Warabi mochi is a great treat during the summer. Stick it into the refridge and chill it up.

A little shop near our place called Korakudo makes a coffee version--with just enough sugar so as not to overpower the coffee taste.

The shop owner sells this frozen, by the time I walked home, about 10 minutes, it was ready to eat!

Summer is here.

sakura, sakura, sakura (part 2)

You may or may not be sick of looking at all of these sakura (cherry blossoms), but bear with me, as I truly love this time of year. The weather has been quite cool over the past week, so I have been fortunate to be able to view LOTS of sakura. Apparently, the cool weather has kept the blooms from falling off the trees, which is just fine with me.

Here are some sakura that I found while walking to the gourmet supermarket. There is an area above our place called Sakuragaoka (literally cherry tree hill), this area has tons of trees, especially alongside the Ishizumi river. I ran into some seniors enjoying the blooms.

The nearby Asahigaoka neighborhood, which I posted about earlier was still in full bloom too.

At the gourmet supermarket, I was excited to find basil, which was grown in Okinawa--their climate is like Hawaii's, so for the most part of the year it is like summer there. Since I had a nice amount of basil in hand, I envisioned turning it into...pesto. So, I bought myself a baguette and made pesto this afternoon. If you have a food processor, making pesto is really easy and fast!

Another ingredient that I've been seeing in the markets are lemons. Since I found a nice one yesterday at the market, I made a lemon-oregano vinaigrette. I've made this several times last year and it is also very easy to make using a food processor.

Since I've used the lemon vinaigrette mostly for summery salads, I decided to try something a little different with the vinaigrette for dinner tonight, I used it to saute shrimp with. After cooking the shrimp at bit, I added a tablespoon of the vinaigrette at the end. Then poured the shrimp over steamed beans and asparagus. The perfect warm salad!

Hope your week is going well.