Still on time for the sakura snow!

Another short article I wrote for Taiken Japan, about one of my favourite places in Tokyo:

http://taiken.co/single/a-different-cherry-blossom-experience-in-yanaka-cemetery

Riding the L on the Pink and Blue lines

Getting out of the city centre is always interesting. Not that the city centre isn't, of course. It's just a different feeling altogether.

Akiko and Takao's garden

Akiko and Takao's garden is right by the sea, facing Hiroshima bay. You can see the oyster racks floating out there.

It's a beautiful garden. I got a bit excited wanting to take cuttings from the various trees to grow them back in Wakoshi when I remembered that I only have a 3m2 balcony, already packed with 25 bonsai and bonsai wannabes.

I did take some cuttings after all :-)) (Gingko, blueberry, rosemary, maple, firethorn, and a couple of unidentified species) and they seem to have survived the Shinkansen trip back home. So far…

At the Kameido shrine

It's wisteria blossom time at the Kameido shrine downtown Tokyo, and since Kameido is all about wisteria it is also the best time for a yearly festival.

This is the shrine in winter time (photo downloaded from internet). The gate, two beautiful red arched bridges leading to the shrine itself further down the path, large ponds where tortoises swim around. Wisteria trees are underneath the grids which will support the flowers in spring. The design of the shrine is quite ingenuous with the crisscross of alleys, bridges, ponds, trees, all crammed into a tiny space.

I visited Kameido a few years back and I knew it would be that crowded. It's a classic Tokyo festival moment, you need to be prepared to face the crowd, there is just no way around it.

Wisteria lucky charms.

Attempting to cross the first bridge. Needless to say, VERY slowly.

From the top of the bridge, the Tokyo Skytree, newest and tallest icon in the landscape surrounding the shrine. Can you see the tortoises sunbathing?

Looking back…

Looking forward….

The flowers were beautiful of course, very fragrant too, but starting to bloom out. The best viewing time must have been last week.

Patting the holy cow :-)) 

(that guy made his dog pat the cow too, I don't know what that was all about)

The second, smaller bridge.

And you already know what's missing. Food stands! Too many to take pictures of everything.

Gathering for a performance. Of what, I don't know, I left the premises before it started. This was a very nice afternoon out.

Mito Kairakuen - Part 3: Bento, tea and flowers

Time to sit down and have lunch with this bento box bought at the entrance of the garden. It's going to be Gyudon (beef bowl) today.

A few meters away, free beverage. I say beverage because I don't know exactly what it was. I've had it before and I almost spat it out because I expected tea but it was more like a salty sour seaweed broth. Not fab.

The free green tea stand. Ah, that's much better, thanks!

Those babies have just been watered, and yaay, we've found the bonsai shop!

So beautiful and very hard to resist. Bao Zhen and I both adopted one of those. Well, one of those at the bottom of the stand, younger and cheaper.

This is Broken on his first day back home. The plum tree's branches are so fragile, I had no idea and was careless, I admit.
Broken did produce very beautiful and fragrant blossoms, though, and he's doing well. One month later and he now has a few more friends to share the balcony with. You can follow their progress here.

Another tree shop.

See you in Part 4…