We generally missed the fabled cherry blossoms in Japan. Though we did see some late blooming varieties. Basically we were too late for Kyoto and too early for Yamagata (which is renowned for its cherries).
But peonies! We hit the peonies! We visited the special peony garden in Ueno Park (I might feature some of those pictures) but best peony shots were from our very last morning at Kyu-Iwasaki-tei, the partially preserved home of the Iwasakis who founded Mitsubishi. I plan to write further on the tremendous dichotomy between the western and Japanese portions of the home.
But they had some spectacularly blooms at the base of this public park located only a few blocks from our Ueno hotel. A fairly big estate tucked almost invisibly inside a busy central city neighborhood. Inside were some art displays including some kind of golden etching art (dang, wish I had paid attention to what these were, I found subsequently that you weren't supposed to take pictures.). But look at the imagery...peonies! That's where they got their inspiration. Surely we've all seen images of these flowers in Japanese art.
I love them. Dennis parents used to plant them in their flower bed at the entrance of the Land Park house in Sacramento. I think they were blooming there at our wedding.
Dahlias are more popular here....
I caught the cold that Dennis caught on the plane. I did take advantage of Coach Gina's tickets and went to watch the UW vs Oregon State game. Not too excited especially if you are an OSU fan (lost 9-0). Ducks didn't do much better losing 10-2.
No comments:
Post a Comment