Friday Afternoon; 20 Minutes to Go
Picnickers enjoy the famous cherry trees of Takato Botanical Gardens, in Nagano-ken.
Last weekend was the big Ohanami weekend for the JETs of block 3 (my block), and thus we met up in Takato on Saturday afternoon to enjoy the cherry blossoms. Takato is the place to view sakura in Nagano-ken, and it might be the sakura hotspot of all of Japan. Everyone I talked to about Takato said that it was famous, and that people from all over the country go there in the spring. The reason it’s (supposedly) famous is that it boasts a special kind of cherry tree, with pinker blossoms than most. I couldn’t really detect a recognizable difference, but it was gorgeous. There are hundreds of trees there, and the park was full of picnickers celebrating Ohanami. I’m sad to report that the pictures I managed to take are not that great, because it was really cloudy all weekend, but I’ll share them with you anyway.
Saturday afternoon, in Takato.
Sarah and I arrived at around five, and met up with Jo and New Zealand Matt who’d gotten there earlier. Eventually the whole gang showed up and we had a good time sampling a variety of foods from the stalls (I had a fantastic baked potato with miso and corn, and sakura soft serve! It tasted like root beer.) We got a lot of stares from passersby, which we couldn’t quite figure out. Jo speculated that it was because Sarah had brought a blanket to put on the ground, instead of a special, outdoor waterproof groundcover, and I’d brought a blanket to use as, well, a blanket, which we were all snuggling under together. No matter, we were warm and comfy, even if we looked a little strange.
Getting home was a bit of an adventure. As I’ve said, I was suffering from an obnoxious cold at time, so I really wanted to get back to Tatsuno that nigh and sleep in my own bed. Not having a car makes this difficult, since Sarah can crash anywhere and doesn’t much care about getting back to Tatsuno on the weekends. Usually I will concede defeat and just sleep at Jo’s and catch an early train the next morning, but I was feeling cruddy and really didn’t want to sleep on the floor. Hannah had told me she’d give me a ride into Ina so I could get the last train, which left the station at 10:49. We ended up leaving Takato Park at 10:00, but then we had to walk to Tonya’s house where Hannah’s car was parked. This was about a 20-minute journey, with Hannah, Carla and I running part of the way. Hannah put the pedal to the metal, though, and we arrived at the station at 10:39 on the dot. YES!
Night falls…this is a really weird picture.
The next day I woke up feeling sicky, but immensely grateful that I was at home. Later that day I worked up the energy to walk up to Tatsuno Park to see those cherry trees, which were nice, if a bit less resplendent than the ones at Takato. One cool thing they have in the Tatsuno park is this long clothesline strung up over the pond, hung with big, colorful carp streamers. The streamers are for Children’s Day, which is May 5th, and symbolize, according to Wikipedia, a child’s determination to thrive in the face of adversity. Aside from that, they look really cool, and I’d seriously consider getting one, if I had any real use for a huge carp-shaped windsock. Oh well, I’ll always have the memories.
On the way to the park…
Past my school…
Kojinyama Park, Tatsuno’s crowning glory!
Even wing-wearing goths love Ohanami!
Delving even farther back into the annals of time, here are two snaps from my birthday dinner at West Village, which concluded with the ritual eating of JAPAN’S LARGEST PARFAIT!!! You get it for free if you tell them it’s your birthday, and our waitress carded me before she’d let us order it. Luckily, it was indeed my birthday, and so the parfait arrived at the table after I’d blown out the candles on the birthday cake Sarah made me, but before we were completely stuffed. You may be surprised to discover that we ate the entire thing, and most of the cake. Ah, everyone’s birthday should be an exercise in giving a new meaning to the word “gluttony.”
Needs no introduction
Delicious cake Sarah made for me, which contained chocolate, mango, more chocolate, and a single walnut.
I leave you now with a picture Sarah sent me of some graffiti she found in Tatsuno, in the underpass by the hospital. It’s a neat picture, and just goes to show that even in the mellowest of towns, there exists a hint of the subversive.
