April 11, 2010

I brought you back Cherry Blossoms

I'm home! I missed everyone on blogland. I checked in whenever I could. I can see that you have been busy doing wonderful stuff. I did a little bit of stitching too, but it was totally different than I planned! More on that later. I'm still in a vacation mode so I would like to show you some Cherry blossoms. Sakura is the name in Japanese. We couldn't have gone there at a better time for the Cherry blossom season! The first week in Kyoto the blossoms were about 30-50% in bloom, then in Tokyo they were 90-100% in bloom, and then at Kanazawa 80-90%. All in all our timing was perfect. I fell in love with the cherry blossoms. I suddenly like pale pink and their smell is so gentle and sweet. The Japanese use cherry blossoms in so many things. For instance in cake, tea, juice, cooking and in air fresheners. Our friend Lesley even had cherry blossom printed toilet paper!
Cherry trees grow all over the country. Some are growing wild, but mostly they were planted many many years ago. There are many species of cherry trees in Japan. They come in all shades from pink to white. I took the photo above at the Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa.
I decided to group the photos into postcards, please double click on the photos to see the larger images. The photos in the postcard above were taken at Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa. It is one of Japan's great three gardens. If you have a chance please check the links above.
I hope you noticed the snow on the mountain? Yes, it was snowing in Kyoto the day we were there and it was colder than we expected. I found that it's not easy to take photos of cherry blossoms. You need a contrasting background against them to get a better effect. I'm pleased with how they turned out. I hope you enjoyed them too.
I like how they use the cherry blossom shape for a drain hole on the road. The bottom left corner photo was the first tree I found in a small lane in Kyoto. I was so excited that I sent them off to some of you, but unfortunately my iPhone so called roaming service decided to stop working just after I did that. Anyway, here they are and you can all enjoy them at your leisure.

By the way, I totally fell in love with Japan. I already thought about going back there for our next vacation. If you have not been there please consider Japan for your next holiday. You will love it too...!


20 comments:

retdairyqueen said...

Welcome home
Sounds like you had a wonderful time

Jocelyn said...

Welcome back! Glad you had such a wonderful time.

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful place.. thanks for sharing your vacation with us and I'm so glad you had fun..

Terry said...

Glad you had a wonderful trip.
Thankyou for the photos of the cherry blossoms.

Little Lady Patchwork said...

Glad that you made it back home safely! The cherry blossoms are so beautiful. Lovely photos.

BTW-I have a new blog:
http://littleladypatchwork.blogspot.com/

Stefanie

Nedra said...

What a wonderful vacation! I have read about the cherry blossoms in bloom in Japan, and your pictures were delightful to see. How fortunate that you were there right at the peak. I didn't realize it could snow this time of year with the blossoms out.
Welcome back and we look forward to hearing more about your trip.

Sue-Anne said...

Love the Cherry Blossums. Even the shape of the trees is very artistic. I am very impressed with the drain hole cover!

Glad you are home and thanks for sharing your photos.

Valentina said...

Welcome Back Nat! Oh my, your pictures are awesome! I particularly like the one against the blue sky... And the Drain! I wonder if we could applique that! LOL
Hope you get settled soon, so you can share more!
Welcome home!
Valentina

Kim said...

We have many places in the states with cherry blossoms....Michigan is the cherry growing capital of the US!
I have been to Washington DC for cherry blossom festival with all the trees given to us by the Japanese in full bloom.
And right here in NY we have cherry groves in the Brooklyn botanical gardens and the NY Botanical gardens too. But nothing looks as wonderful as these! I love the pictures with the snow covered mountains as the backdrop for the lovely full pink blossoms.

so is there a cherry tree quilt in your future?

My husband has done plenty of business travel to Japan and loved it more with each trip.....in the mid 80's we had a chance to move there but it was not the right time for our family to be out of the country.

We often hope we can travel there...time will tell. But if we get the chance I know what time of year we should go!

Lovely pictures Nat...thanks for sharing. Welcome home....
Happy sewing

Maggey and Jim said...

Welcome back, love the photos.. Did they have lots of cherry foods?? I love that pink, very delicate. Will be looking forward to stitching..
Maggey

Micki said...

I loved seeing the cherry blossoms. We have a tree like that in our garden, and I remember tons of them in Washington,DC. I have always wanted to see Japan, but not Tokyo, and maybe one day Joe and I will go there.
Micki

RG said...

Welcome home Nat!!
Love your pics of the cherry blossoms... so lovely and pink is my very favourite colour!!!
We can grow cherries at the farm ;)

Sounds like you had a wonderful time!!
hugs
Robyn xx

Kitiya Palaskas said...

They're so pretty! Glad you are back! xoxo

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, Natima! Lovely pictures of the cherry blossoms!

ria vogelzang said...

The cherry blossom looks gorgeous!! Its a pity I can't smell them overhere.......
Lovely pictures! You did a great job!! And great to here you had a such a good time in Japan!!
Love, Ria.

Anne-Lise at Rag, Tag, Bobtail said...

Welcome home! Lovely photos - thanks for sharing. I think cherry blossoms are so beautiful.

QuiltSue said...

Beautiful blossom. At one time we lived in a road which had 30-40 year old flowering cherries all the way down on both sides and it was just gorgeous when they were all in flower.

Astrid said...

Hi Nat, and welcome home! Gorgeous cherry blossom! I've only seen them on photos or TV, and I believe it is something else to see them 'live'. Amazing!

Anonymous said...

I am pleased to read you seemed to have fun.
Cherry blossom season is the 2nd most Japanese one in a year.
There is a mountain wholely covered by 30,000 cherry trees in Nara prefecture near Kyoto.
You can enjoy skiing too in Hokkaido till the beginning of May.
But next time, I recommend visiting around the 1st of January that you can see the most Japanese scenes.

Nat Palaskas said...

Dear Anonymous, thanks so much for dropping by my blog. I fell in love with Japan so I will be back and visit Hokkaido. I wish you have left your name!

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