Hanamizuki Festival in Utsunomiya

I went to Hanamizuki Festival today. Hanamizuki is the name of trees, which bloom in late April after the cherry blossom season in Utsunomiya. The flowers are now in full bloom in my city. White and bright pink flowers are really beautiful.

The main stage of the festival was just about 100 meter distance or few minutes walk from my condo. I enjoyed the festival today, last year and the year before the last.

There were flea markets, talk shows, dance shows, band performances, a stamp rally game and a lot of food stalls.
The most popular event of the festival is Trial Bike Show. It’s fun to watch the live motorbike show just in front of the performance. It’s a little bit dangerous. lol

Hanamizuki: Cornus florida / Flowering Dogwood

Street Jugglers in Utsunomiya

Daidougei Festival or Street Performers' Festival was held at several places in Utsunomiya.
Jugglers, magicians, comedians and acrobats, more than ten groups of performers took part in the festival just few weeks before the cherry blossoms season in Japan.
Actually their juggling performances were not perfect. They fell the jugs several times in their shows. So, I edited the video by cutting off the parts they fell the jugs.
But, I think live performances are better than a well-edited video. I really enjoyed watching the performances of them.

Performers:
1. "Project K. Y." are high school boys.
2. Sakurako is a cute girl juggler.

Disclaimer:
Sorry for the bad sounds. All sounds were recorded live on the street.

Kamagawa River in Utsunomiya

I went to the Kamagawa River in the center of Utsunomiya to take pictures of cherry blossoms yesterday. The Kamagawa River is not big, just few meters wide and less than 10 km long. There are cherry trees along the river and carps live in the river.
Since we had windy and rainy days last weekday, part of cherry blossoms have been blown away. I show some of pictures I took there.

When I went to the Kamagawa River, shop owners near the river were selling vegetables and giving out flowers for free near the riverside. I bought fresh vegetables and luckily had a pot of yellow poppy.
The poppy is on the new PC desk, which I bought at Yamashin discount shop today. The desk was buyer-self-assemble type. My daughter Rina enjoyed assembling the desk very much with me.

Cherry Blossoms

We had a perfect weather for viewing cherry blossoms this weekend in Utsunomiya. I usually take a rest in the morning and play tennis in the afternoon on Saturdays. But I got up rather early in the morning yesterday, had quick breakfast and went to Utsunomiya University for taking cherry blossoms' pictures.

There are several nice spots for viewing cherry trees in my city. But, few people know that they have a lot of big cherry trees in the college campus.

It was not crowded at all when I went to the campus. One of advantages of the campus for taking pictures is that there are few utility poles. Even when we can see beautiful flowers or cherry trees, utility poles and its wires often spoil the pictures.
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My Precious Words #1

This video is one of my collections of inspiring quotes.
I made this video with touching words I met so far in my life, favorite pictures I took in the last couple of years and a music played by 'changee.'

【Music】
"The Folks Who Live On The Hill"
Composed by JEROME KERN, Public Domain,
Piano played by 'changee.'
I used the music here with the kind permission of 'changee.'
You can hear more of changee's music:
http://www.voiceblog.jp/katsuhiro/

【Pictures】
1. Kinu River, Utsunomiya, Japan
2. Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
3. Tage Fudouson, Utsunomiya, Japan
4. Utsunomiya University, Japan
5. Ajigaura Pier, Ibaraki, Japan
6. Mt. Fuji, Japan
7. My home balcony, Utsunomiya, Japan
8. JR train, Tokyo, Japan
9. Romantic Village, Utsunomiya, Japan
10. From my home balcony, Utsunomiya, Japan
11. New Year's Day, Utsunomiya, Japan
12. Utsunomiya Central Park, Japan