Yozakura: Cherry Blossoms at Night

More pictures from the park, this time at night.

Puchi Hanami

Rin and I took a walk through the park today on our way to Furatto and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom with several groups of hanami revelers enjoying them.

Blooming Sanda

On the way to the post-office today I passed a tree covered in absolutely spectacular yellow flowers. I don't know my aster from my elderflower when it comes to the floral kingdom, but maybe you can identify them, Mima. (I'm tempted to say mimosa for some reason, however)

P.S. Hmm just GISed mimosa and it looks like I was right. Go me!

More Sparkling Nature

The season for Kinmokusei has, unfortunately, come to end and most of the leaves have fallen off the trees already, but now we can begin to enjoy the winter-blooming flowers such as camellia. This tree is quite popular in Japan and our local park is filled with its beautiful pink blossoms.

Autumn in Japan: Kinmokusei

Autumn is far and away my favorite season in Japan. The weather is cool but not too cold, the trees turn beautiful colors and there are lots of yummy things to eat, like Mattake mushrooms. The best thing about autumn though, is the smell of Kinmokusei. These lovely trees are in bloom all around my neighborhood and they smell heavenly. So sweet and delicate it makes a walk in the park an absolute joy.

Mom- the English name is fragrant olive, the Latin name is osmanthus fragrans var. aurantiacus

Tulips, Tulips and More Tulips

This past Sunday, Shoichi and I took Rosie to the Kasai Flower Center. It's a lovely botanical garden in Kasai City that has a huge variety of different kinds of flowers and trees. It's tulip season now, so we were treated to a spectacular display of more than 300,000 tulips of 450 kinds. My favorites were the black ones and the red ones edged with orange and gold, but they were all stunning.



They also had a good-size green-house filled with tropical plants, including some carnivorous flowers that wave their fronds to attract insects. If anyone gets a chance, I definitely recommend it. I believe the next seasonal flower to be showcased is azalea or satsuki (which, by the way, is the old Japanese name for the month of May).

The website of the Kasai Flower Center
Goog afternooner!
P.S. Still no CD, maybe we'll get it this weekend