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.

yawata & ikeda

Yesterday, Satoshi had the day off and since the weather was forecasted to be sunny, I decided we were going to check out more sakura.

One of my friends on Flickr had taken photos from Yawata and I was interested in checking this place out.

You see, along the bank between the Kizu River and Uji River are 250 cherry trees, stretched across 1.4 kilometers (about 0.8 miles).

Beautiful and amazing to see. The best part is there is no admission fee!

I packed us a bento (tamagoyaki, goma-ae, tsukemono, tsukudani + some musubi and muffin) and we headed to Yawata.

It is about an hour from Osaka to Yawata which is in Kyoto prefecture. Did you know that Satoshi had never been here and he grew up in Kyoto??

It was amazing to see so many trees and they were all in bloom. The wind was quite strong so at many times the petals were flying.

In Japanese, they call this "sakura fubuki" (cherry petal storm).

After our early lunch, we took the Otokoyama cable car up Mt Otoko and checked out the Iwashimizu-hachimangu as well as the look out area.

There is also a memorial for Thomas Edison. Apparently, he used a piece of bamboo from this area to create his light bulb.

We then took the Seseragi trail down the mountain. This was quite scary. Just 700 meters (about 0.43 miles) down a steep, leaf-laden path, I'm glad I didn't slip (as I'm famous for doing...)

After coming down the mountain, there were several temples we checked out as well as this Sakura Kinrin Koen. A large park with many cherry trees, they even had a little zoo for kids (and adults) to check out.

I was amazed that these weeping cherries were right next to a fishing spot.

After checking out this park, we walked to the Shokado Gardens.

They boasted a beautiful weeping cherry, which they sort of did have, but there were more varieties of tsubaki (camellia) that made the 400 yen admission worth it.

The bus system is a little spotty, so we walked back to the station (almost 2 kilometers, about 1.2 miles) and were hungry, so we stopped in for something sweet.

Yawata Hashiriimochi is a famous sweet in this area. Originally from Otsu (in Shiga prefecture), this sweet was created to look like a sword, in 1764. Then in 1910, this sweet was brought to Kyoto and was sold in Yawata ever since.

We had the hanami set with matcha, 570 yen (about US$5.70). This came with 1 hashiriimochi, 1 sakura mochi & your choice of drink.

After all that walking this really hit the spot.

Even though our feet were tired and we saw a lot of sakura, we decided to see more (because the days are limited to see them).

We took the train back to our area, and went to Ikeda.

Every year, Satsukiyama lights up their cherry blossoms and we got to see them on the last day of the event.

A very long day, but we saw a lot, we walked a lot and got to see a lots of beautiful sakura.

I have uploaded several videos but want to share this one with you. It was taken while we were at Yawata Sewaritei, the wind was quite strong and we were in a "sakura fubuki" (cherry petal storm).

Yawata Hashiriimochi
19 Yawata Takabo
Yawata, Kyoto
Phone: 0120.75.0154
Open: 8:00-18:00

sakura walk

Lately, I've been going on sakura (cherry blossom) walks in the afternoons.

Thursday and Friday I walked around Sakuragaoka and Asahigaoka. These two neighborhoods have sakura (cherry blossom) trees planted in front of almost every home.

Saturday it rained, so I couldn't show Satoshi the sakura in our neighborhood, but Sunday was clear. The skies weren't blue, in fact there was an ugly haze, but at least there wasn't any rain or wind.

From our place we walked to Sakurai, where I showed Satoshi the huge sakura tree. A lot of the blooms had fallen since I had discovered it, but Satoshi was still impressed by the size of the tree.

Then we went to Suigetsu Park, where I wanted to show him this shidarezakura(weeping cherry) tree.

It was actually on the property of the apartments next to the park. (On Friday, I trespassed in order to take the photo, there are 2 men in the photo also, I think they were trespassing also, they didn't even notice me, I guess they were in awe of the tree).

From Suigetsu Park, we walked to Ikeda and up the steep Satsuki mountain.

We've always seen the observation area from the train, but never went up the mountain.

I'm sure the view would have been nicer had there not been the haze. The walk down the winding road was nice, there was a tunnel of cherry blossoms.

At the bottom in Satsukiyama Park, many people were partying under the cherry trees, actually everyone sat wherever they could find a place to sit!

There were tons of people, especially since the weather was nice. I think we'll be able to enjoy the cherry blossoms for another week or so.

sakura, sakura, sakura

Well, the dust cloud has lifted...yeah! The sun came out and called me out to play, so I decided to check out the sakura (cherry blossoms).

I first went up the street to an area called Asahigaoka, in this neighborhood everyone has a cherry tree planted in front of their house, so it is really nice at this time of year.

Then I walked down to Suigetsu Park, there were lots of people sitting on benches, having picnics, just enjoying the day.

After Suigetsu Park, I then walked to Satsukiyama Park, they had the place decorated with lanterns for yozakura (night viewing of cherry blossoms).

Then I caught the train to Takarazuka. There is an area called Hana no michi (Flower road).

Cherry blossoms aren't only on trees...there is also a plant called shibazakura (lawn cherry blossoms), these flowers are very pretty as ground cover and comes in pink, white and purple.






After all that walking, I worked up an appetite, so I stopped in for tea and scones at a tea shop called Sarah.

Whew! that was a LOT of walking, but worth every step. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.