2 posts tagged “sakura”
It's been days! Hello Vox! I spent many afternoons wandering around Meguro River for hanami, cherry blossom viewing. It was very crowded, and the trees were so strikingly beautiful. It made me fully realize why so many haiku have been written about the magical presence of the pink and white little flowers.
I would have loved to spend endless hours outside in the warm weather, drinking nihonshu (aka, sake) and eating takoyaki or grilled mochi, but alas, the time would always come that I'd have to head to work and being half-drunk might not be the best of plans. :D
Saturday afternoon was spent walking from Shibuya to Harajuku to Daikanyama to Nakameguro. It made me realize just how close I live to all of these places. It felt like walking from Yonge Street and Queen through West Queen West to the edge of Trinity-Bellwoods park.
During the trip, I found no less than five pairs of shoes I wanted to buy. That'd have set me back almost $600! Some may not know, but I have, unlike most men, a small obsession with shoes. I'm good though, I don't go overboard on shoe buying. I mean, I only have 2 pairs here in Japan that I brought with me. In the end, I opted to buy something a little less pricey during my voyage, a cellphone strap.
Here, you can see it pictured next to my phone. He's a daikon! The back of his jacket says, 茶 (cha) which means "tea". Haven't translated the other kanji, but I do know one of them, 開, means "open". The other one is hard to read.
Darkness started slowly creeping up on me by the time I got to Meguro, and a light sprinkle of rain was edging it's way onto the swollen crowds watching the sakura petals falling into the river. I decided to get myself home to relax. I had also spotted a pair of camo pants in Nakameguro I think I'll have to go back and try. Very unique design.
Sunday I went out to Chiba city, which is an hour away by train, to get a proper haircut and hang out with my new hair-stylist friend, Yasu. Starbucks are everywhere in Japan, and even more dense in Chiba than Tokyo, which I found incredible. Went for Korean at a restaurant on the top floor of Parco Chiba, part of a chain of depato (department store) in Japan. It was damn fine food, and included noodles, a big bi-bim-bap and some kind of thing that resembled a pizza, which i couldn't catch the name of. Kim-chi in all of it of course.
Then I caught the train home and tried to call it an early night, which of course didn't happen.
I can't seem to fall asleep before 1am these days, which results in my waking up quite late in the morning. Usually never before 10am, but never later than 11am. Ah-well, I still can usually get a lot done in the hours before work (although today I'm being a little lazy because it's raining). After work is the same thing. But, for some reason I feel guilty and lazy for having a non-standard waking life. Truly, I get more done in a day now than I did back in Toronto. I should just fully embrace my nocturnal tendency and not get hung up on being out of synch with a lot of the world.
It's almost time for cherry blossoms!
I took a quick trip around the corner to see how they were coming along blooming by the river. Not yet, not yet.
I'm rather looking forward to when they bloom fully. It will be quite pretty down here. With it means warm weather all of the time and not freezing my ass off at night in the uninsulated house. Heater or not, it's just damn cold at night.
Soon, though, warm days, cool nights and hanami will begin. Down at the riverside it might be hard to actually sit under the trees. But I think walking up and down the roads running along side with a beer in hand would be a fun evening.
The decorations are already to go, the lights are up. All we need now is a few more degrees on the thermometer and for those flowers to start the show
