sakura sakura sakura. you came, you bloomed, you went.
it rained sheets and buckets at the beginning of the week, making it cold, and dreary, and putting off that kind of feeling that just makes you want to crawl back in bed in the morning instead of getting up and going into school.
except the really cool windy rain blew all the sakura flowers off the trees i walk past on my way to school and covered not only the street but the walls and steps of the houses across the street - little pink circles of color scattered over gray stone and green leaves and white painted fences. they evenly covered a couple of people's cars (which i'm sure were a pain in the ass to clean off, but were pretty and kind of charming to see).
i didn't make it to any of the giant sakura-viewing sites, in part because of the cold i caught the last weekend of my break, and in part because the weather for the most part was cloudy and gray. but i did take pictures of the local park with all it's trees, and one afternoon when i was with Sam we walked to the local pond in his neighborhood and saw all the sakura trees that had draped themselves (or been trained to drape) out over the water. it was beautiful, and of course there were a ton of locals eating their lunches out on the benches watching the petals fall. and the place where our school is is absolutely filled with trees planted in rows up on rows, so we see them from the windows of the building every day.
it's crazy how amazing the trees are, even when there's just one in your neighborhood. i'm sure those of you who live in places that actually get weather (not my LA LA land steady 72 degrees) are used to this, but after the cold and shriveled winter, suddenly encountering tress that are like puffy delicate floating clouds with just a hint of pink is just ... this thing that made me smile every time it happened.
and there are stages for the sakura. there's the first blooms, but then also the falling petals, and these become pinker as they go. and the leaves of the trees that come in *after* the flowers are actually reddish brown, which i find fascinating.
before this all happened i kept seeing trees start to bloom with pink blossoms, and kept asking if these were the sakura, and being reassured i would know when the season actually happened, and oh my god now i understand why people were slightly condscending when they told me i'd know when it was time! it was time! and it happened in a joyous rush.
and now it's time for other things to begin springing too - today we had the first warm afternoon in a bout a week where the sun was out and the sky was blue and all the leaves are bursting forth on all the trees, there are bulbs flowering, and even though the sakura have mostly fallen off the trees, there's still this magic in the air that they've left behind.
of course it clouded back over this evening, but that just made me curl up under the kotatsu and think about making chocolate milk, so you know, worse things could happen. of course motivating to get out of bed tomorrow will be a bit of a stretch but ... it must be done.
i'm having trouble motivating after our spring break - it was so good to just stop for a while, and taking the trip to get out of town was great. getting back to the homework is much harder these days, particularly as i've got to be self motivated. i'm working on it, bit by bit, but it's the second week and i haven't *quite* gotten into a grove. instead i was a bad child and ended up getting myself a Karen Armstrong book that i hadn't read yet and gobbling it up until 3 am last night.
housemate remains pleasant and since i haven't actually had any guests and haven't really been much out of my room doesn't seem to be starting problems, horray. little things still bother me, but this two will come to an end soon, and then i will gratefully return to the bosom of my parents, who can then be bothered by my habits!
i got an email from an old friend from my undergrad college days, and he's had HUGE ups but also HUGE downs since i last talked to him, and i'm having trouble articulating a reasonable response to his last email - i dearly love this person and am so glad he exists in this world, but don't want to seem callous when talking about the people he's lost since i talked to him last.
one of my friends cut my hair for me over break, and my life is so much better with short hair that i literally swing it with joy at least once a day. after having long hair for 15ish long years (and ridiculously long hair for many of those years) it's nice to have it cut up to my chin and feel it bounce.
i think i forgot to mention here that my friend who is the lady ninja came and visited me my last week of break - she spent the night here and then we went to tokyo the next day and bought ALL THE BRAS because believe it or not, there is this amazing bra shop in Shinjuku that has plus size bras that are BEAUTIFUL and literally you can't *get* these kinds of bras in the US ... in the US they seem to think if you've got big breasts you aren't going to want lace, or any pretty colors, or any pretty designs. Every time I go bra shopping in the US i'm dissapointed. But in Japan, land of the flat chested (seriously, kimonos are NOT meant to be worn by women with breasts), I found a shop. And I spent an obscene amount of money there. But now i have pretty things to wear. And not only pretty - pretty and reinforced. They actually *support* my shape instead of flattening or scrunching.
Anyway, besides bras it was so good to see my girl!! We had ridiculously syruppy thick espresso at Bear Pond (after a kind of nostalgic train tour through our old stomping grounds), and then had ramen at this tiny tiny hole in the wall place that handmakes their noodles and had the best chashu I've eaten in Japan (though sadly i don't know the name of it, because it was a Sam find, and he's the one who guided us there. And then we wandered around another neighborhood looking for a sporting goods shop she used to go to that had gear for martial arts .... which we found but also found closed. it was still a ridiculously good day and a great visit, and the only sad thing is that i was literally dripping snot the entire day with the first onset cold signs.
thus my vacation ended on a quiet note - i spent the rest of the days doing laundry, watching bad movies, and trying to rest up so i wouldn't start classes with a cold. which i mostly achieved, with the help of some japanese cold medicine that actually worked (apparently this is amazing according to others who have bought OTC stuff here - japanese medicine is notoriously weak). sadly not doing homework.
and i'm *still* not doing homework, or at least i'm not while i'm typing this entry. it did happen today, about five hours of it, so i'm not entirely lazy. but there's always more waiting around the corner ;)
also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there
except the really cool windy rain blew all the sakura flowers off the trees i walk past on my way to school and covered not only the street but the walls and steps of the houses across the street - little pink circles of color scattered over gray stone and green leaves and white painted fences. they evenly covered a couple of people's cars (which i'm sure were a pain in the ass to clean off, but were pretty and kind of charming to see).
i didn't make it to any of the giant sakura-viewing sites, in part because of the cold i caught the last weekend of my break, and in part because the weather for the most part was cloudy and gray. but i did take pictures of the local park with all it's trees, and one afternoon when i was with Sam we walked to the local pond in his neighborhood and saw all the sakura trees that had draped themselves (or been trained to drape) out over the water. it was beautiful, and of course there were a ton of locals eating their lunches out on the benches watching the petals fall. and the place where our school is is absolutely filled with trees planted in rows up on rows, so we see them from the windows of the building every day.
it's crazy how amazing the trees are, even when there's just one in your neighborhood. i'm sure those of you who live in places that actually get weather (not my LA LA land steady 72 degrees) are used to this, but after the cold and shriveled winter, suddenly encountering tress that are like puffy delicate floating clouds with just a hint of pink is just ... this thing that made me smile every time it happened.
and there are stages for the sakura. there's the first blooms, but then also the falling petals, and these become pinker as they go. and the leaves of the trees that come in *after* the flowers are actually reddish brown, which i find fascinating.
before this all happened i kept seeing trees start to bloom with pink blossoms, and kept asking if these were the sakura, and being reassured i would know when the season actually happened, and oh my god now i understand why people were slightly condscending when they told me i'd know when it was time! it was time! and it happened in a joyous rush.
and now it's time for other things to begin springing too - today we had the first warm afternoon in a bout a week where the sun was out and the sky was blue and all the leaves are bursting forth on all the trees, there are bulbs flowering, and even though the sakura have mostly fallen off the trees, there's still this magic in the air that they've left behind.
of course it clouded back over this evening, but that just made me curl up under the kotatsu and think about making chocolate milk, so you know, worse things could happen. of course motivating to get out of bed tomorrow will be a bit of a stretch but ... it must be done.
i'm having trouble motivating after our spring break - it was so good to just stop for a while, and taking the trip to get out of town was great. getting back to the homework is much harder these days, particularly as i've got to be self motivated. i'm working on it, bit by bit, but it's the second week and i haven't *quite* gotten into a grove. instead i was a bad child and ended up getting myself a Karen Armstrong book that i hadn't read yet and gobbling it up until 3 am last night.
housemate remains pleasant and since i haven't actually had any guests and haven't really been much out of my room doesn't seem to be starting problems, horray. little things still bother me, but this two will come to an end soon, and then i will gratefully return to the bosom of my parents, who can then be bothered by my habits!
i got an email from an old friend from my undergrad college days, and he's had HUGE ups but also HUGE downs since i last talked to him, and i'm having trouble articulating a reasonable response to his last email - i dearly love this person and am so glad he exists in this world, but don't want to seem callous when talking about the people he's lost since i talked to him last.
one of my friends cut my hair for me over break, and my life is so much better with short hair that i literally swing it with joy at least once a day. after having long hair for 15ish long years (and ridiculously long hair for many of those years) it's nice to have it cut up to my chin and feel it bounce.
i think i forgot to mention here that my friend who is the lady ninja came and visited me my last week of break - she spent the night here and then we went to tokyo the next day and bought ALL THE BRAS because believe it or not, there is this amazing bra shop in Shinjuku that has plus size bras that are BEAUTIFUL and literally you can't *get* these kinds of bras in the US ... in the US they seem to think if you've got big breasts you aren't going to want lace, or any pretty colors, or any pretty designs. Every time I go bra shopping in the US i'm dissapointed. But in Japan, land of the flat chested (seriously, kimonos are NOT meant to be worn by women with breasts), I found a shop. And I spent an obscene amount of money there. But now i have pretty things to wear. And not only pretty - pretty and reinforced. They actually *support* my shape instead of flattening or scrunching.
Anyway, besides bras it was so good to see my girl!! We had ridiculously syruppy thick espresso at Bear Pond (after a kind of nostalgic train tour through our old stomping grounds), and then had ramen at this tiny tiny hole in the wall place that handmakes their noodles and had the best chashu I've eaten in Japan (though sadly i don't know the name of it, because it was a Sam find, and he's the one who guided us there. And then we wandered around another neighborhood looking for a sporting goods shop she used to go to that had gear for martial arts .... which we found but also found closed. it was still a ridiculously good day and a great visit, and the only sad thing is that i was literally dripping snot the entire day with the first onset cold signs.
thus my vacation ended on a quiet note - i spent the rest of the days doing laundry, watching bad movies, and trying to rest up so i wouldn't start classes with a cold. which i mostly achieved, with the help of some japanese cold medicine that actually worked (apparently this is amazing according to others who have bought OTC stuff here - japanese medicine is notoriously weak). sadly not doing homework.
and i'm *still* not doing homework, or at least i'm not while i'm typing this entry. it did happen today, about five hours of it, so i'm not entirely lazy. but there's always more waiting around the corner ;)
also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there