Cherry Blossoms

 Unlike rainy Saturday yesterday, it’s wonderful sunny Sunday today.

I went to Igashira park today.

Tennis courts in Igashira park are surrounded by many cherry trees. It is the best season today both for watching cherry blossoms and playing tennis.

Memory of Matsue Castle

Like every city does so, my hometown Matsue city has changed a lot in several decades. How has it changed? It became easier to drive, having wider streets, tourist friendly signs and information offices, having lots of well-known franchised shops like McDonalds and Starbucks, and newly built attractions for tourists.

I’m happy and proud of seeing those changes but, at the same time, I feel sad that well known narrow streets disappeared, small parks I used to play were replaced with tall buildings’ site and large supermarkets drove away small mama-and-papa shops.

I took the first picture from a Matsue-Ohashi bridge viewing Mt. Daisen to the east. There must not have been such big electricity towers.

Second picture was taken at the front yard of Matsue Castle. There were play fields and tennis courts there thirty-five years ago. I used to play baseball with my classmates after school. That was great fun to me at that time. But now, ball games inside castle site are prohibited.

Castle tower viewing from an opening between cherry blossoms is a few exceptions of unchanged scenes in downtown of Matsue.

I realize that I can go back to my current home town but can NOT go back to the city I lived forty years ago.
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Cherry Blossoms at Night

Night viewing of illuminated cherry trees is popular in Japan.

I walked to Futarasan or Futara-yama shrine last night; Several big cherry trees were in full bloom there. I also was able to see the full moon behind cherry blossoms.
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Flowers of Cineraria Are In Full Bloom

It's sunny and warm day again in Utsunomiya today.
Thanks to the warm weather these days, flowers of cineraria in my room are in full bloom right now.

I walked to a shine next to my condominium. Not only cineraria but a couple of cherry trees were in full bloom.

The building behind the flowers is the condominium in which we are living.

Cherry Blossoms

I go to and back from my office by bicycle, feeling full of spring atmosphere these days.

On the way from home to my office, there are cherry trees. Only for about one week in April, they have amazing beautiful flowers on their branches.

Yes, it’s hard to go to my office by bike on a rainy day.

But, being able to do good exercise and lots of seasonal beautiful scenery prevent me from giving up an every day thirty-minute biking journey to my office.

I show you cherry blossom pictures that I took today and yesterday.

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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Mt. Fuji and My Backache

I suffered from a terrible backache at the week before last and took two days off the office.
I rarely take days off due to illness. It was so terrible that I wasn’t able to even walk and sit more than five minutes.
I suffer from a terrible backache in every two to three years, especially when I’m very tired and work too much or in the same situation I play tennis too much. This time, I took part in a tennis tournament with my colleague even I had a cold.
I felt much better last week than two weeks ago but couldn’t say it a perfect condition. Same as other people, I don’t realize the importance of being healthy before I lose it. I played tennis yesterday but, while playing, I thought I should have taken a rest at least one more week.
We are going to have a rainy season this week or next in Utsunmiya. I think it’ll be a good rest for me since our tennis court is outdoor type.


I went to lake Yamanaka near Mt. Fuji with my mother, brothers, sister-in-law and my family members a month ago. It was very beautiful. Mt. Fuji matches very well with cherry blossoms.