Prelude to Sakura

For 7 months now, I've been hearing about Sakura (さくら = Cherry Blossoms). The trees' pink flowers bloom for about a week in late March /early April and it's supposed to be quite beautiful. It appears to be *the* event of the year. People travel the length of the country looking at them (even though they are everywhere), people hold parties (we've been invited to 2 already), and there are even regular "Sakura forecasts" on the news. I know that people in D.C. also get quite excited about the Cherry Blossoms in spring but I think the Japanese have taken it to another level. A funny aside: the trees in D.C. were a gift from Japan. One time when Yumi was visiting me in Cleveland and we were headed to visit friends in D.C. in spring, my Mom told her we might get lucky and see the Cherry Blossoms in bloom and asked her if she'd ever seen them before.

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In any case, Sakura is still a couple of weeks away but the prelude is here - Ume (うめ = Plum Blossoms). Today we went to Sankeien gardens here in Yokohama and saw the tail end of their blossoming. They are quite pretty, too. Bright white. It was a beautiful day and nice to get out after a stressful week of Ph.D. work and craziness at school.