Spring Time! Sakura!!

I am always impressed with how beautiful Japan is.  Sure, houses and apartment buildings are majorly packed in around here and the utility cable lines are everywhere, and none of those are super attractive to me.  However, there's a great bit of attention given to landscaping here, whether it be around people's homes, in parks, on the side of streets, around stores, everywhere really!  There's a variety of trees and flowers everywhere so that regardless of what season it is, something is thriving and brightening up the place.  Everything looks good in the summer, of course.  The gingko trees line the street outside of base and once fall hits, their bright yellow fan shaped leaves brighten up area.  The violets take over everything in the winter, along with the bushes that have the hot pink flowers.  And then spring hits and ohmygosh, I love it!!  Tulips! Daffodils! Flowers that I don't know the names of!  Bushes of flowers that I've never seen before!  And of course, SAKURA!!!  Sakura is probably one of the most celebrated things/seasons in Japan.  Throughout the year, you can find sakura decorated everything: dishes, fabric, notebooks, art, home decor, and so much more. 

 For the two week period when the real sakuras are blooming, it's pretty much magical!  The blossoms just draw you in and you find yourself starting up at them in awe.  Or you could just stand there and wait for a little breeze to make it snow blossoms.  Now that we're over halfway through the blossom period, the delicate pink blanket of blossoms that cover the ground is also stunning.  There are many different varieties of sakura and I love them all!

This first batch of pictures was taken around my neighborhood.   

Do we have these in Ohio??

There is a farmers market style store that I love going to.  They always have the best price on the freshest fruits, veggies, flowers, and more.  I got this bundle for 250 yen ($2.50). 

This next group of pictures is from an area just outside of the East Gate of base.

We didn't dress with the intention of us being in the pictures. 

This is one of my favorite pics, even though it's not a sakura. 

Senior picture style!

That's all for now, I might post more to this as the season progresses.  Ja ne!