Sakura in Saga!!

Hello readers far and wide!

As it seems like we've just jumped into summer in the past two weeks, it seems like an appropriate time to sum up the wonderful, yet tearfully-fast spring I've enjoyed in Japan. I wish sakura season could have lasted until the end of time. It was absolutely lovely, no how much sneezing I had to go through to see all those beautiful cherry petals.

Since explaining what sakura is like in real life is far beyond my writing capabilities, please take a browse through the petaled streets, schools, and shrines I visited during cherry blossom season. It's a must-see!!

About to embark on some sakura tasting!

The first full-blooming tree I set eye on; right after returning from Osaka.

Pretty in pink

 An interesting quote I heard quite often from my exchange student friends: "I thought all sakura were supposed to be pink. That's how they are in manga..."

While on my trip to Fukuoka to apply for my Chinese visa, I found a beautiful weeping cherry tree in a shrine.

A sole cherry tree among the hundreds of peaches and plums planted at Kodenji Temple in Saga.

On the university campus

Actually I lied. These are double plum blossoms.

A plum tree in full bloom, far before any cherry trees

Plum blooms

Pink cherry blooms

These are also plum blooms, "ume", not to be confused with "sakura."

Snacking on yummy blooms

Outside of Honjo Elementary School

The borders of the old moat of Saga Castle are completely surrounded by cherry trees

A pink afternoon

The trees in full bloom at Saga Castle

It rained while the sakura were in full bloom, resulting in most of the petals prematurely falling from the flowers. What a sad day that was.

New leaves

Jofuku Cycling Road in Saga. A must-see in Saga. Kilometers and kilometers lined with a tunnel of cherries.

A late-blooming weeping cherry in a temple in Saga City.

From the inside looking out

The sad end to sakura season

Kansai Part Two

A traditional Kyoto lunch: soba

Ohisashi-buri Kyoto!

My most awaited visit of the Kansai region was definitely Kyoto. The one day trip where I'd been to Kyoto before is maybe half the reason I wanted to return to Japan! I absolutely love everything about Kyoto, and as I've found out from my Japanese friends, they often love Kyoto the most too. 

Everything feels transcendent after visiting Kyoto. It's like, "Did I just see that all with my own eyes?" How have they preserved  this ancient capital so beautifully? There are so many temples that you step out from the gates of one and there's another right next door! Even now, the big city skyscrapers and ultra-modern Kyoto station seem to blend seamlessly with the old Kyoto image. You still see women walking in kimonos and rickshaw drivers for hire on the streets.  

But being able to live in Kyoto, drinking in the sights of your own Japanese garden, the surrounding walls and leaves of the plants absorbing the drone of the city when you return from your busy urban life; that would be superb.  It's such a one-of-a-kind city. Our first stop was Arashiyama, to the west.

Arashiyama

With Maiko in Arashiyama

Walking upriver

An absolutely perfect Japanese garden to the side of our soba restaurant. 

The gardens here can make anyone go halfway nuts. Every time I pass one, I just want to live there as a hermit forever. They are so old and so meticulously perfected, you can tell right away from the age of the pines and the luscious blanket of moss underfoot. Kyoto is 100% the mecca for Japanese gardens. And I would like to go on a pilgrimage here.

Kyoto is chock-full of gardens

Loving the Kansai Region!

by Josie Losh

Flying away from Kyushu and towards Honshu on my first domestic flight within Japan.

Hello, Readers! My first travel of spring break has just finished and do I ever have a lot to share with you!

Along with five of my friends, I set out on a 6-day spring break trip to Osaka, with day trips to Nara and Kyoto. Our group composed of two Japanese, Swedish, Armenian, Belgian, and American exchange students. For most of us, it wasn't our first time in the Kansai region, but it was our first REAL stay there, and boy was it worth it!