Counting Down to Sakura Fubuki

Pardon me for keeping you hanging. Those cherry blossoms in seemingly infinite varieties have been occupying my days and getting to the last page of A Girl in a Blue Dress before the Japanese Book Club meets tomorrow has occupied my evenings.

Tomorrow or the next day I'll start sorting the scores of photographs Weather Explorer and I snapped at Mitsuike Park last Thursday.  Mitsuike Park was one of Yokohama's best kept secrets until I saw it mentioned on a cherry blossom website a few weeks back.  The helpful clerks at the tourist information center in Yokohama Station were speechless when we poked our heads in the door in search of directions to the park but they rallied and came up with a Japanese map that gave us a vague idea of how to get there.  Prepare yourself for a long story; I was so smitten with the park that I went back three days later with Ishii-san in tow.

There's little chance I'll get all my favorite cherry blossom pictures posted before sakura fubuki time. That's the Japanese expression for "cherry blossom storm" when the petals cascade from the trees with every gentle puff of wind.

As a bit of respite for your eyes before I barrage you with more pink, pink, pink, here are two more pictures I admired at the Sogenkai Exhibit last week.

The Ancient Mariner puttered into port Monday in time to experience a few significant aftershocks. He's admired the new kitchen faucet and refrigerator and is starting to wonder when I plan to replace the owner's manual in the latter with something edible. Hopefully I'll get around to that before he vanishes over the horizon again less than two weeks from now.