More blossoms and other stuff

 The cherries were definitely in full bloom.

 As I mentioned before, the various flowers are all blossoming at the same time this year, rather than being spread out of a number of weeks. These flowers are usually seen well before the cherry blossoms.

 Along this stretch of road, there are cherry trees on both sides and the branches meet in the middle so the road goes through a tunnel of pink.

 After leaving the cherry trees, we walked toward Izumi Chuo and along the way decided to have lunch at a Mos Burger, a Japanese chain resembling Macdonalds.

 The Japanese are constantly importing things and then modifying them almost beyond recognition. This picture is a closeup of the poster you can see on the side of the Mos Burger building in the above picture. It is an ad for their newest item. I guess you could call it Indo-Mexican food. What you get is Indian nan covered with the ingredients normally found in a Mexican taco. Broken pieces of taco shell are sprinkled on top of the whole thing. I almost tried one, but finally decided on a burger made from a chicken breast instead.

More blossoms at Shogen

The cherry blossom pictures do not need any comments, but this one does. It is in a little sitting area in the park but beside the road. There are a few benches and a local group has planted flowers in the planters that are in the area. This picture says something very strong about typical gardens planted by common people. The flowers are placed in straight rows of the same color. You see this all over the city. I must add that temples often have gardens and they are completely different - no straight lines and mixtures of plants and colors. The gardens in Zen temples are particularly well know. However, common people, not monks, do not use Zen principles, they use geometry.

Cherry Blossoms in Shogen

 Here is something that is happening more and more in Japan, especially since they shut down all the nuclear reactors. This house is being fitted with solar panels on the roof. As far as I know the unused energy that the panels produce can be fed back into the electrical grid, reducing your bill. Also many of the panel systems are now coming with rechargeable batteries so the electricity collected during the day can be used at night.

 A little farther along, we came to the beginning of the cherry trees. People were having a picnic under the very first one.

 There are different kinds of cherry trees so there are different pinks. I will stop blabbering here and just let you enjoy the colors.

Going to Sendai Airport

 Here is another picture of one of the men working on the roof of the Izumi Chuo subway station.

 On the levee next to my apartment complex there are some cherry trees. On this day it was rainy.

 Here are the same trees the next day when it was sunny. On this day my wife, daughter, grandson and I took a trip to the Sendai airport. We were just starting out when I took this picture.

 This is my grandson Tsubasa.

 While I was taking the picture of Tsubasa, the sun came out and the colors on the cherry trees got brighter, so I took another picture.

We took the subway to Sendai Station and then got on the train to the airport. I had to sit across the car from the others so I used the space to take their picture. I am sure you can figure out who is who.

Cherry Blossoms

 The Japanese, and the foreigners living here, truly love cherry blossoms. They are so beautiful but soon blow away. They illustrate the Buddhist idea that nothing is permanent that that this life of ours is beautiful but short. Cherry blossom viewing is a big deal, but it is not religious. It is a party where you go and look at the beautiful flowers and then sit under them and eat and drink as much as you can. Many of the parks in Japan have large numbers of cherry trees and, when they are in blossom, people come and spread out the blue tarps that have been so much in evidence since the earthquake as a place to sit. Many companies will allow some of the employees to leave work early so that they can stake out a good location. Then for once leaving at the official quitting time everyone else follows.

On Thursday I had to go to the dentist for what turned out to be a gum problem, rather than a tooth problem. After they had worked on my mouth and given me some pain killer, my ;wife and i decided to walk home so that we could see the blossoms. They were in full bloom and very pretty. I think that if the sun had been out they would have looked much pinker but they were extremely nice the way they were. There is no need for descriptions. I will just let you enjoy the pictures.