UW Cherry Blossoms 2012

This weekend I went up to the University of Washington to visit the quad and take in the cherry trees there. Every campus has a particular place that is special to all its students, faculty, and alumni and this is definitely it for the UW. The yoshino cherry trees there were a senior gift to the university from the class of 1959 and have been part of the school since they were planted in 1964. Every year they bloom around spring break and signal that summer is almost here.

 After the break much more from this year's cherry blossoms!

Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto is the heart of traditional Japanese culture and the hills here turn pink during the cherry blossoms. After our visit to Osaka and Himeji Castle, this was our next stop. To this day, Ryoan-ji is one of my favorite places in the world because of the sight above. It's impossible to capture the moment in picture or word, but my friend and I entered the temple a bit burnt out from a day of temple hopping, turned the corner to see this cherry tree over the Zen garden, and were speechless. Literally. We both sat down and turned our full an complete attention to the scene.

I earnestly believe that we seldom truly experience the world around us. It's actually a skill that needs active practice because it's easy to get caught up in either the past or the future, instead of the present. In short, we think too much and it keeps us from truly experiencing the world around us. On top of the challenge of simply being present, we also add ourselves to our perception of the world. At a very basic level, even adding names to what we see around us is a distortion of a type because it adds values and associated concepts to the object being viewed. True experience wastes no energy on what is not there and instead focuses all the senses on everything around you. That might sound like a stretch, but this garden was built in part to help attain these types of true experiences through their use in Shikantaza, which is part of Zen Buddhism and is the practice of "quiet sitting in open awareness, reflecting directly the reality of life". We fell into some version of this when we were there and only left after someone politely let us know that they were closing for the night.

There is so much more to Kyoto than just cherry blossoms and Ryoan-ji. After the break, we'll continue the sakura festival and take a look around Kyoto.

The photo above comes from the Philosopher's Path in the Northeastern area of Kyoto. This is a great walk by a canal lined by cherry trees and temples. It's also an actual neighborhood and has retained much of its charm. It ends (or starts) by the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, which resembles the much more famous Temple of the Golden Pavilion on the other side of town. It's about 1.5 miles long and mostly flat walking once you are on the path.

Aside from the sakura blossoms, Kyoto is the heart of traditional Japanese culture. The imperial palace is set in Kyoto and there are endless Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines to visit. In Japan, Buddhism and Shintoism live side by side (literally in many cases as shrines are built near Buddhist temples so that the Shinto spirits can work towards their own enlightenment) and in Kyoto there is a temple or shrine almost literally on every corner.

Among the various temples there is also the famous red torii gates of Kyoto. These are located at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which sits at the base of Inari mountain. Anyone visiting Kyoto must come here and take the hike. It's pretty fantastic.

Another must is the Kiyomizu-Dera and the Bamboo forests. The Kiyomizu-Dera can be done on the same day as the Inari Shrine if you are up for a long day of hiking, but the bamboo forest is on the other side of town and better done with the Nijo Castle. The Kiyomizu-Dera is perched in a cloud of Japanese maples and pretty a pretty impressive sight with a decent view over the city.

The Gion District is the traditional geisha district, which is now primarily restaurants and a couple pachinko parlors. After a long day walking through temples, this is where you're most likely to get a good bite to eat. At the guest house we were staying at, Ichi En Sou, we had a great host named Yashi who was able to show us around the area and to the good places.

 

(Some) Cherry Blossoms by Himeji Castle, Japan

Himeji Castle is located about 50 miles outside of Osaka and is an easy day trip from the city. By train, it's about an hour and a half and $20 and there are plenty of options for getting there and back at all hours except early morning. We arrived after the peak bloom when most of the petals had already fallen, but the castle is worth a visit anytime. Unlike many castles in Japan which have succumb to fire or destruction by war, this is a 400 year old original. It's the quintessential Japanese castle. 

Virtual Visit of the 2012 Washington DC Cherry Blossoms

I've been keeping an eye on the Cherry Blossoms in DC and noticed that photographer David Coleman has a live blog of the trees with this year's blossoms. Check out his website: Have Camera Will Travel - Washington DC Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms in Osaka, Japan

In Japan, cherry blossoms are more than just a mark of a new season. They are as deeply part of the national identity as Mt. Fuji, but to really understand the connection that the Japanese have to these blossoms requires seeing it in person in Japan. In my case, I visited in 2009 and found out for myself, completely on accident, how wonderful the Japanese sakura season is.

When I purchased my tickets to Osaka, I hadn't thought about timing the visit at all. I simply wanted to see Kyoto and the Kansai region and found a tremendously inexpensive fare that made it possible ($437 roundtrip). My friend and I arrived at night in Osaka and it wasn't until the next morning that we realized that the cherry trees were in bloom when came out between the skyscrapers and onto the grounds of Osaka Castle. We had obviously arrived just after the peak bloom, but there were plenty of trees left full of blossoms and when the wind blew the sight was like pink snow on a warm breeze. It's very easy to see how the Japanese fall in love with the sight generation after generation and have integrated it into their landscapes and identityover the centuries.

Osaka is a wonderful place to visit. It's a blue collar town with a great baseball team (The Hanshin Tigers: Win or lose Tigers Pride!) and a fantastic food culture. Osaka is actually the epicenter for food culture in Japan partially because of it's blue collar heritage: Merchants in Japan were at the bottom of the traditional caste system in the 1800s because money was considered to be corrupted or dirty. However, while successful merchants had plenty of money they were not allowed to flaunt their wealth directly or own form land. Instead, they showed status and wealthy by spending on art, food, and non-obvious luxuries like silk linings to otherwise mute clothing. As a result, Osaka's food scene flourished with the patronage of wealthy merchants. The canal district, Dōtonbori, is still a flourishing restaurant and entertainment district that offers something for everyone: There are street vendors serving up takoyaki, walk up booths with snow crabs, open charcoal grills for do it grilled meat, and a wide range of restaurants for any price range.

From Osaka, it's easy enough to get to Kyoto, Himeji, and the rest of Japan via bullet train. Next time, we'll take a look at the last blossoms at Himeji Castle, one of the last authentic ancient castles of Japan (most other castles like the one in Osaka are reconstruction). After the break, more photos from my trip to Osaka!

Dōtonbori is located in the heart of the city and is the place to go for all of your lesuire needs. This area is best visited at night when the signs are lit up and when the locals are out in force. You'll find all of the distractions of an entertainment district here, albeit with a Japanese twist. Restaurants come any way you like, from potentially deadly fugu specialists all the way down to hamburgers from McDonald's. While casinos aren't allowed with traditional games, there are plenty of amazingly loud pachinko parlors around to satisfy your gambling needs. The trick is that while they do not offer direct payouts, one of the prizes you can select can be sold at a stand nearby for cash (which makes it technically legal gambling in Japan). Karaoke,  kushiyaki, sushi, and the even the infamous Japanese "love hotels" are available here among many other options.

There's a lot more to Osaka than just the castle and the entertainment district, and as mentioned one of thefunnest things you can do while you're visiting is to go see a baseball game. The Hanshin Tigers have a rabid fan base that make the game fun no matter who they are playing. As you walk towards the stadium, you'll see people selling balloons. Buy one! You'll need it for their 7th inning "balloon attack", which involves releasing thousands of screeching balloons at the end of their theme song.

Their mascots, To-Lucky and Lucky are pretty entertaining game day and make for some very cute merchandise. If you're looking for an overload on Japanese media, you can learn how to dance along with them at the start of the game over on the official website here. Since I visited, they have also added a third mascot, Lucky's younger brother, into the mix.

Osaka is fantastic and I'm looking forward to visiting again, but next stop is Himeji Castle and the Kyoto for this series of posts and sakura season!