This month is really flying by. Is it really the end of April? Have I really not written anything in almost a month? Where has all this time gone?

Last post I made, I had been visiting some nice cherry blossom sites. Since then I’ve been to a few more. Cherry blossom season is now over, but here’s a few more photos of the blossoms from mid-month:

Maruoka Castle's cherries at night

A few Fridays ago I finally got to see Maruoka Castle! I’ve lived near here for almost 3 years and I’d never been to Maruoka Castle until now. My old job just didn’t allow me to get out ever. But this was the perfect time, the cherries being in full bloom. The castle was beautiful, especially with the cherries and lanterns everywhere. My camera doesn’t take great night shots, but it was such a beautiful sight to see. I hope to go back in the day and get a better look at the inside of the castle too some time.

Cherries in Fukui along one of the rivers

The next day my wife and I went to Fukui to walk along the rivers and see some cherry blossoms. Fukui’s most famous blossoms are along the Asuwa river, but this was some other tributary that was less well-known but still very beautiful. We sat for a long time and watched the ducks and pigeons playing around, and people walking under the falling blossoms.

Fukui's Asuwa River cherry blossom festival

Later on in the day, Hitomi had work, so I walked around the Asuwa River. That day was Fukui’s big Historical Festival and Parade, so the whole city was packed with people, and it was the perfect day for it. Warm, but not hot, and sunny. Tons of entertainers in historical costumes were doing various things — I actually missed most of the show, but I was still able to see the blossoms and crowds. Of course in the huge crowd I still couldn’t help but bump into one of my students, and I also ended up running into some friends. What are the chances? Anyway, I spent the rest of the day with my friends, and at night we climbed up Asuwa Mountain to see the ancient weeping cherry tree at the top. The photos of that didn’t turn out so great so I won’t post them. Again, I hope I can go back there in the day too — it was such a gorgeous mountain, full of classic houses.

Kyoto's Kamo River

On Sunday we woke up early and went with my wife’s family down to Kyoto again. The blossoms were still out, and falling from the trees like a blizzard. It was really amazing. Our main purpose was to visit Hitomi’s brother’s family and take their newborn son to a shrine for a blessing.

Shimogamo Shrine

We went to the Shimogamo Shrine. The service was really short, but interesting. It’s maybe the closest equivalent in Japanese to a Baptism. It happens about 100 days after the baby is born, and it’s basically just to give thanks for life. And I can’t resist going to ancient shrines.

The rock from Japan's national anthem

One neat thing about the Shimogamo Shrine is that it is home to a number of neat things, like the lover’s trees — two trees that grew together and fused into one (pray there for a love blessing) — and also the rock mentioned in Japan’s national anthem. The anthem is based on an ancient Heian era poem, and talks about rocks that grow together to form boulders. This is one such boulder.

So I’ve had a really wonderful spring, and I’ve just been so happy that I’ve finally been able to actually experience springtime in Japan! Not to complain about my previous job or anything… There were many circumstances keeping me from that actually. It’s been fun reminiscing with my wife about visiting her in the hospital up in Uchinada during her jaw surgery, and my accidental trip down to Kyoto when I boarded the super express train by accident…

These past couple weeks I’ve been working like crazy on another big chicken painting — roughly 2′x3′, like The Wedding. It’s 99% done now, and mostly I’m waiting for it to dry… but I should be able to FINALLY post it this week. I feel really bad for not posting anything interesting lately, and especially for not posting any art, but hopefully when I do finally get to post this big painting it will have been worth the wait.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some zombies to kill.

It’s always really fun when people come to visit Japan and I have an excuse to travel. So last weekend when an old friend took the 17+ hour journey, my wife and I went down to Kyoto and Hikone to see the cherry blossoms with her.

I’ve been to Kyoto many times, but this was the first time I’ve been during cherry blossom season (minus one brief stop last spring after I boarded the wrong express train home and went on a 4-hour detour that took me through Kyoto). We met my friend and her Harvard buddy (whom I’d also met before in NJ) and navigated our way around the subways and streets of Kyoto. The weather was cool but the sun was warm and the trees were in full bloom. It was absolutely beautiful. One part of our walk took us along old train tracks which have been converted into a walking area, full of cherry trees and people in kimonos enjoying the spring air.

Our first big stop was Heian jingu, a huge, very famous shrine in Kyoto. I’d been there before too, but it was nice to see again. I’m starting to get a much better feel for the architectural styles of different regions and different periods in Japanese history — just as you can look at an English castle and recognize Norman or Roman or other architectural concepts, there are pretty distinct styles that arose throughout Japan’s history; the older Heian styles have a distinct Chinese feeling to them, as it was a period heavily influenced by Chinese culture.

I'm sure this is exactly what you wanted to see, right?

Afterwards we had lunch at a cafe, and went down the famous Philosopher’s Walk, a cherry-tree lined canal road that passes by many shrines and temples. It’s so named because a famous Meiji-era professor used to walk this road on his daily commute to and from Kyoto University.

Feeling philosophical

Ginkakuji: the not-so-silver pavilion

My new favorite statue on Philosopher's Walk

We explored Gion in the evening and Pontocho at night. They’re such beautiful districts and I feel like I could spend a year just walking them with a sketchbook. Sadly, being in a group is not conducive to sketching, so I wasn’t able to do any. But I probably burned more calories imagining and fantasizing about how beautiful it was than I spent walking around for the whole day.

Pontocho at night: not quite Bladerunner

The next day we went to Hikone (on my insistence) to see Hikone castle. I’d never seen it before — other than drive-by’s — so I was really excited to see one of the few remaining “authentic” Japanese castles; that is to say, not been refurbished into a museum, with steel structures and elevators. Hikone castle is much smaller than Himeji castle in Hyogo, but no less beautiful. The grounds were full of blossoming cherry trees and old castle buildings, giant boulders, Japanese pines, and dozens of food stalls selling delicious festival food. And of course, Hikone castle’s famous mascot, Hikonyan, was everywhere to be seen. I still have the Hikonyan theme song stuck in my head, actually.

Celebrating Act Like A T-Rex Day in Hikone

Hikone Castle

Obligatory Hikonyan

We had snacks in Hikone’s “castle town” district, in a small cafe made out to be like a grade school. It was very surreal, and I think we all felt like we’d gone back in time. Bronwen and I started talking about elementary school days and PEP class.

It was really fun, but as always I’m glad to be back in Fukui. The cherry blossoms here are just reaching full bloom and the streets here are now quite beautiful as well. I had a hanami party with my students today, and though it was pretty cold, we were able to see a lot of really beautiful flowers.

On a separate note, my hand is cramping up from writing all of this… The other day I spilled tea into my keyboard and ruined it, so I went to buy a new one today. I found a pretty good one for 800 yen (the next one up was vastly more expensive, so this was an awesoem deal), and while it works great, it’s a Japanese model so the Enter and Backspace keys are narrower and shifted one slot to the right, making it really uncomfortable to stretch my pinky over to reach them. I hope I get used to this soon… It’s no wonder Japan sells so many wrist elevators and ergonomic pads and such — their keyboards are really uncomfortable!

Oh, and I’m regretting not having any paintings to post recently. I’m working on 3 things simultaneously, and that means that it will be three times as long as I had originally hoped to post something. I nearly finished my next Fukuiraptor painting, but a deadline was sprung upon me rather quickly and now I’m dedicated all my time to finishing a new chicken painting.

And I realized I haven’t been translating my blog into Japanese for a long time… I’ve got some catching up to do!