Sometimes You Just See Something

Sometimes you just see something that captures your fancy. The other day while walking with Pippi, I looked down and saw this metal cover embedded in the sidewalk. Decorated with a five-petalled cherry blossom, it caught my eye and we paused for a moment to take a close look. No more than 8 - 10 inches in diameter, it was slightly dirty but the pattern still showed through. In Japan, cherry blossoms often show up where you least expect them! Someone took the time to consider this cap's appearance and the care to think about the people who might see it. How did that someone decide on a cherry blossom? Did they consider other motifs? I wonder who that person is? I wonder where they are right now?

Petal Snow Storm

Unsurprisingly Japanese has a special word-- hanafubuki -- to describe cherry blossoms as their petals swirl around. The meaning of the first group of syllables, hana, is flower and the second, fubuki, is snow storm. It is really an amazing sight when the wind blows and the petals fill the air like giant snowflakes. Though a little sad, I appreciate the flowers' remarkable beauty again in this evolved form. After they drift to the ground, the petals gather on the ground until someone comes to sweep them up. Replacing the petals, leaves turn the trees turn green and the blossoms into a fading memory.


By the banks of the Meguro River




The petals gather on the water's surface until the current gently washes them away.




Don't they look like snowflakes?


They are so lovely.


Each and every one of them.

Pizza Van

Pizza Van takes the meaning of food-to-go to a new place. In recent years I have noticed an increase in restaurants-on-wheels parked on Tokyo streets. Usually they hawk conventional fare like espresso or kebabs. Trumping them all, this fellow has a bona fide, tile clad, wood burning pizza oven fired up in the back of his souped-up VW van. Can this possibly be safe? His pies were selling like the proverbial hot cakes to the lingering crowds taking in the cherry blossoms one last time before the petals all blow off and sail down the Meguro River.

Sakura Soba

Looking out the window at the grey, rainy/snowy day, it is hard to imagine that sakura (cherry blossom) season is right around the corner. But within three weeks or so they should be in full bloom. Predictions for their peak dates (they vary in accordance with location) are probably already in the media someplace. Like everyone else, I await their arrival eagerly and hope that I will not miss them entirely while on spring break back in chilly North America.

In anticipation, I had sakura soba for the first time the other day while out for lunch with a dear friend. Truth be told, I had never seen these unusual noodles before. When they appeared as a special offering at that rather good sobayasan atop the department store Mitsukoshi Ginza, I could not resist. Though the same thickness and texture as garden variety buckwheat noodles, they were pink! Yes, pink! The taste was essentially unchanged. But my nose did detect an essence of cherry blossom as I daintily slurped the tsuyu soaked strands. An all natural product, the pink color may be attributed to the flower petals added to the basic buckwheat flour mix.