Far East Cynic

Hanami

When you can’t be in Hong Kong where you should be, what do you do?

Get dragged by the S.O. to an antique market of course. Which except for the lack of drunken female company is not really so bad.

This market is actually a street sale in Tennocho which is a “suburb” of Yokohama. A lot of people live there in apartments and such and the area is full of shops and parks-which means at this time of year there are a lot of Sakura to go see.

Hanami is a Japanese word that comes from the Kanji of “flower” and “look”. And it means literally looking at flowers, although in the popular nomenclature it means looking at Sakura. Which are glorious this time of year. So too is just walking around experiencing the wonder that is Japan:

tennochoii.jpg

That is the Landmark Tower out in the distance.

Let’s go for a long walk, shall we?

Speaking of what makes Japan cool, it is the ability to go down one little street and see dozens of different things in one block:

tennocho.jpg

We of course had to head direct from the train station to the shrine where the central market for the day was. Marvel at that sentence-a country where the train can take you just about anywhere:

shrine-market.jpg

More of a flea market, but with some neat things to see.

Like war art:

war-art.jpg

Believe this is a painting of the Sino-Japanese war of 1899.

And you get to watch the S.O. throw herself into looking at Obi’s (That’s the wrap worn around a Kimono).

so.jpg

Notice the determination on that face. Too bad she can’t apply that same level of concentration to other equally important activities!

Of course when finished here-there was plenty more to browse back on the street:

street.jpg

And then there is the Sakura!

sak-1.jpg

From here we walked the 4 miles to Yokohama station. So we could see more of this:

sak-2.jpg

As well as the spring trees:

pink.jpg

I don’t remember what they call these but they stick around longer than the Cherry Blossoms do. Plus more shrines along the way:

shrine1.jpg

Ask me again , why I am crying myself to sleep every  night, having to think hard about leaving all of this.( Even if I resolve to come back to it…). 

For this:

aton538l.jpg

Excuse me-I have to go drink my brains out now……………….

  1. You know, it’s spring time here, too.

    Problem is, there is still lots of snow on the ground…:(

    Nice pics…

  2. Thank you so much for the photographs. The flowering tree in question may be a Flowering Almond, but that’s only a guess. No matter……what a beautiful way to celebrate Spring.

  3. I like I like!!!! Don’t think I could do the 4 mile trek just to look at cherry blossoms, but that’s my laziness for you. I miss the cherry blossoms that we used to get in our old house before the move – front and back yard.