March 02, 2003
Blossoms
It is hard to believe that it is March already.
When daffodils begin to peer, / With heigh ! the doxy over the dale,/
Why, then comes in the sweet of the year,/ For the red blood reigns in the winter pale.
William Shakespeare , The Winters Tale
In Galway, the avenue of daffodils on the Oranmore to Galway dual carriageway are poised to burst open into a glorious golden avenue (something to look at when stuck in a traffic jam) and blossoms are already forming on the cherry trees in Eyre Square. In Japan, the cherry-blossom season is called sakura and by Easter, the city and surrounds of Tokyo are filled with the glorious colours of cherry trees and other flowers. Which seems as good an opportunity as any to add my Tokyo gallery, photographed during sakura, 1995. Click on the continue... link to view the rest of the photos
For a bit of cross-cultural merriment, try Engrish.
this is my first attempt at creating a gallery using Movable Type, and frankly, it's poor. I think I'll create the galleries separately in future and just link them to a MT page.
The 
Imperial Palace in Tokyo is located in the heart of the financial
district
- the palace itself
is hidden behind a moat and ornate
woodland.
There is a lot of ceremony involved when a Royal
carriage enters or leaves the palace - when I arrived, a line of
staff and police were combing the grounds
(for litter ?).
A group of children were waiting outside the palace
- they were dutifully enthusiastic when
the royal cortege
appeared.
It was sakura season in Emporer park
and everything was in full bloom
.
Tokyo is famously built-up
and skyscrapers are commonplace. The Department of Communications
was straight out of 1984. If one ever tired of the local cuisine, there were also more familiar options;
width="75" height="59"> or
.
A hour by train out of the city, and it is
countryside
. I visited a Buddist Temple complex
width="72" height="75">and graveyards
width="75" height="37">.
Litter is not tolerated, as these signs
width="75" height="48"> &
width="75" height="49">demonstrate.
There were many people at the site, either burning
incense
in honour of departed loved ones or praying at one of the temples
width="75" height="51">.
And finally, I came across this statue
outside an art
gallery:- the plaque reads
Mr. Ryoichi Sasakawa, the cahirman of The Japan
Shipbuilding Industry Foundation, climbed the hill of 785 stone stepsat the age
of 59 to worship the famous Konpira Shrine in Shiloku Island, carrying his 82-
year old mother on his back.At that time, he dedicated a Jpanaese poemin
praise of his respected mother, which reads as follows:
Carrying the mother on my back,
I climbed the hill to worship,
Counting the number of stone steps of the shrine,
And feeling her weight -
But how could I know the depths of my mother's love.
This bronze statue was erected in memory of his late mother.
My camera was a Nikon 501 and the film was Fuji.