They're here!

Well, the wait is over. The cherry blossoms have finally hit Tokyo.

It's still very early in the cherry blossom season, so most of the trees are still just in bud and not in full bloom.



As the weather this year so far has been pretty awful, I decided to go out and grab as many photos today as I could while the sun was actually shining. Beautiful and all as the day looks, it was actually pretty cold, so this should help draw out the notoriously brief bloom of the trees. Even so, some hardy souls are getting there traditional blossom-shaded drinking parties (お花見ohanami parties) under way.


I went to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. I knew from past experience that the trees there are big and get a lot of sun, so I thought there'd be a fair amount of flower to see.



This is taken from inside the gates to the shrine.



I really like this one of the inside of a flower - I'm happy how much detail came out.



This one is kind of dreamy.



And I think this one looks like wallpaper.



I love the contrast of the very dark wood and the very light petals.





And this is a weeping cherry blossom, because the branches go down instead of up.



Chiyoda ward is holding its cherry blossom festival at the moment, and as part of the festivities, they put on some free music. This led to the fairly incongruous sight in the photo below, a real mish-mash of cultural identities:


It is a Japanese evangelical choir taking the stage at the Shinto Yasukuni Jinja - infamous for the convicted war criminals enshrined there - singing Christian gospel music and laying down some Jesus-themed rap. I didn't quite know what to make of them and did cringe a little when they rapped the line, "I'm gettin' down with the g.o.d. Are you down with the g.o.d.?" But I sure did envy them their extreme happiness.

The journey home called from stopping off at my favourite French bakery; I got this puppy for desert.


I do not know what is wrong with me. I used to be renowned for my surprising ability to put away obscene amounts of food, and then come back for seconds. With age, though, my stomach must be shrinking, or something, but I could only eat half of this tarte au chocolat. It was SO delicious, but just too rich for my blood.

Last night saw me go to my first gig of the year. It was looking like the evening was going to be a complete bust, because - as usual - I couldn't get out of work on time, even though it was a Friday evening. On the train in, my friend texted me that the band he really wanted me to see (Deerhoof) had already taken the stage. So, I arrived in a bit of a mood, to say the least, and unfortunately only caught about three of their songs before they finished up for the night.

But there was a silver lining to this cloud; the other act on the bill - that I hadn't given a thought to - turned out to be really excellent. I have embedded a video of one of their songs. Please don't be put off by their name; they are not at all aggressive, as you might expect. Instead they have a really mellow, positive vibe. L'il bro, maybe Fur Immer can hook up with these guys and organize a wee tour of Japan. Why not get the Rizza on the case?