My birthday was this past week. It was a little hard not being home for it, but I'll be home in a couple weeks. Anyway, because I was 8 hours away my family decided to send a few things. My mom sent me my mail and a few microwaveable dessert bowls. Apparently she'll be making a dress sooner or later as well. And-- to my great surprise-- my younger brother sent me a lovely bouquet of flowers! Now, I've been sent flowers before-- my dad sent me some for Valentine's Day one year while I was in college, and boyfriends have sent flowers to me (I'm a vixen, you know). But I have never received flowers from one of my brothers. Not that they don't give me thoughtful gifts on my birthday, but I was so astounded that my bro had such beautiful, perfect flowers shipped to me. So I thought I would share some photos of them for your amusement.
It's hydrangea season in Japan. I know there are hydrangeas in the U.S., but I feel like the colors of hydrangeas in Japan are more vibrant and various. But don't take my word for it! (Cue "Reading Rainbow" keyboard)
I know I have said this before, but flowers in Japan are more beautiful than flowers in America. Period. And more abundant. I am constantly awed by the different seasons of flowers in Japan-- year-round I see flowers everywhere, of every color.In front of schools, along roads, growing on walls, in ditches, even weeds-- beautiful, vibrant flowers. The above flowers were in an untended strip of land butting against a fence near my apartment. These poppies were in a small park-type thing behind the bus center in Fukuoka.
It's cherry blossom season in Japan, and that means that everybody is out armed with a camera and grilled chicken-on-a-stick for Hana-mi. Hana-mi literally means "flower-veiwing." The ancient tradition was for monks to sit and meditate under the blossoms fluttering off the trees. Nowadays it's pretty much the Japanese equivalent of Fourth of July: instead of fireworks being an excuse to stagger around drunkenly in a park and eat lots of grilled animal fat, in Japan the excuse is the blossoming of cherry trees.
It's getting to be flower season in Japan, and I am very excited! I know there are lots of flowers in the US, but not like Japan. I don't think it's possible to live in Japan and not notice cherry blossom season, azalea season, or hydrangea season. Right now it's tsubaki season (pictured below). I think the English word is "camellia" or something. It's funny-- I learned the Japanese word for something I didn't know in English. That only seems to happen with vegetables, different kinds of seaweed and flowers, though.
It was lightly raining this morning as I waited for my ride to church. I love how gentle spring rains make the green pop off the trees and the colors of the flowers deeper and more important. I whipped out my camera and got some really pretty pictures:
Irises are my favorite flower. These irises are in my favorite color. Thus they bring me such joy when I come in from a long day of school and see that more have bloomed since I left in the morning.
I went to a flower festival last night and again today. Like I mentioned before, it is sakura season in Japan, and it's only logical that there is a festival to celebrate it (Japan has an awful lot of festivals). Like festivals and major holidays in the States, festivals in Japan are usually reasons to get drunk and eat lots of fatty food. Actually, when I was in China there was a festival where similar events took place, i.e., lots of drinking and partying into the night for no reason but that it was a festival. Funny how things like that are seemingly in every culture.
Everywhere sakura! It's cherry blossom (sakura) season here in the land of the rising sun. The weeklong blooming period started while I was in America. I have been shocked again and again at just how many sakura trees there are in Japan. I had no idea all these trees would bloom so beautifully in the spring! The sakura season is highly celebrated in Japan. There are seasonal gift items, cakes, and candies available with a cherry or cherry blossom theme. People flock to parks to view flowers. I read a book recently that said that when Buddhism was adopted by the Japanese, flower viewing was incorporated as another form of meditation. I have always believed in the restorative quality of reflecting on the beauty of nature, so I tend to think there's some truth to the philosophy of viewing nature as a type of meditation. Anyway, the photo is of a sakura tree near my apartment.
That means "Fire Mountain," which is where I took this picture. It's pronounced "hinoyama" in Japanese. I love the name of the mountain (which actually barely qualifies as a mountain. It's really just a massive hill. But it was still fun to climb, don't get me wrong). There is an awesome park and walking trails that lead to the top, where these is an observatory. I went to the park in hopes of taking the ropeway to the top to take pictures of the whole Shimonoseki and Kanmon Strait area, but the ropeway was closed, so I started hiking, without thinking about having a water bottle or good hiking shoes with me. At first I was just walking around taking pictures of random flowers and pathways and stuff, but after about twenty minutes of walking I realized that I was really thirsty and hungry and sweaty and that I would have to hike back down as well. So I abandoned getting to the top and settled for getting to the nearest vending machine. So I'll have to go back sometime to get some good panoramic shots of the water and the bridge and the mountains. For now the above picture will suffice.
In other news, I wrote another haiku, this time only in English:
the deep black of crows glistens in the morning sun as they feast on trash.
I read it to one of my Japanese colleagues and at the end she said "yamete," which means about the same thing as "shut up" or "stop it." I asked her if she didn't like it, and she said that in Japan crows are a symbol of death, and are especially inauspicious in the morning. She said I should never write haikus about crows. It wasn't a super-serious thing to her, so we laughed at my foolish cultural mishap, but I still got the impression that the poem was unsettling to her. So I learned never to wax eloquent about crows in Japan. Let that be a lesson to you as well, my loyal readers.
はな つち 花と土 Flowers and soil on みち せみ 道は狭いが on a narrow path during はるさんぽ 春散歩 a warm spring walk. In Japanese class this week we wrote haiku's. In Japanese. I was freaked out. I thought it would be so, so hard. How can I write a poem in another language? Well, the results were good, possibly profound, and definitely hilarious. Here's another one I wrote that turned out to be not a haiku, but a senryu-- a satirical poem with the same number of syllables as haiku. Apparently a poem only qualifies as a haiku if it is about nature or a season. This next poem is only indirectly about nature. To wit:
はなみず 鼻水や a runny nose and あたま いたい 頭が痛い a bad sinus headache means あ れ る ぎい アレルギー allergy season.
(Note: the translations are not literal. I tried to translate them so the syllables were still the correct amounts and stay true to the ideas in the poem. It was tough. Give me a break.)
I've decided to try to post a new photo everyday to add some interest to the blog. Let's see how long I last before I forget to update and decide to scrap it altogether. :)
Name: Ruthie Home: Japan About Me: I want to know who God is and what his truth is. I love getting lost in beautiful music and cloudless star-filled skies, especially in the fall. I hate being bored. I like big cities. I want to travel the world. read more
Name: Ruthie