この自宅の入口はすばらしいですね。庭は背が高くて濃いです。
It is amazing that this house and tall garden still exist in Tokyo. I love how thick the garden is, and how open the entrance is to the street.
Fantastic garden entrance for Suginami residence
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trees
Pine tree filling out between winter’s hard prune and summer’s heat
この杉の葉は大きくなっています。冬は極端に切りつめて、日差しを増やします。夏は影を作ります。古い監視カメラがあるので、人の作った庭だとわかります。けれども、だれも見ていないと思います。
I like how this pine tree is starting to fill out. It was hard pruned for winter, which allows more sunlight into the apartments. By summer it provided thick shade. Somehow this dubious security camera adds to the charm of this very orderly tree.
Mature dogwood beautifies old Showa-era building in Tamchi
雨の日の田町、ハナミズキが昭和の建物をもっときれいに見せています。隣の建物が今はコインパーキングになってしまいました。@Shibaura House の岩中さんと散歩して、来月のフィールドワークのワークショップの準備をしました。
On a wet day in Tamachi, this mature dogwood beautifies a Showa era building. The building next door has been replaced with coin parking. I took a long walk with Iwanaka-san of Shibaura House to prepare for next month’s “field work” workshop on green mapping.
Clothing boutique has unusual garden entrance
代官山にあるフランスのブティックは珍しい庭の入口があります。森のトンネルみたいです。
I recently stumbled upon this garden entrance to the APC boutique in Daikanyama. It’s nice to see outdoor retail space dedicated to a garden path, unusual plant selections, and lovely night-time lighting. It’s like a forest tunnel.
Cherry petals become dark red mush as leaves fill out. Magnificent long path of cherries.
十日後、花吹雪のピンクの花びらは濃い赤色になりました。花びらと茎が分解していて、若葉がまだらの光を作っています。
In just ten days, this lane of cherries in Tatsumi has gone from pink to a dark red, with petals and stems decomposing on the pavement. I like how the leaves are growing fast, and providing shade as the weather warms up.
Highway rest stop cherry blossoms. Unlike US, Japanese rest stops are immaculate.
きれいな桜がサービスステーションにあります。日本のは米国のより全然違います。
I love this elegant cherry tree in bloom at a highway rest stop. In the background, you can see a row of cherry trees lining the highway. I am rarely a car passenger in Japan, but I was my in-laws on a day trip last weekend.
In the United States, highway rest stops have a bad reputation: dirty, few food options, insufficient toilets, and an atmosphere of decrepitude and crime. In Japan, they are immaculate, constantly renovated, over-supplied with clean toilets, food options that rival a large mall, and endless rows of souvenir edible gifts for people you will visit or for friends and family back home.
Like this:
“Flower blizzard” marks the end of cherry blossom season. With a tinge of regret, it is one of hanami’s most beautiful sights.
最近「花吹雪」という表現をおぼえました。花見の季節が終わるころ、道はピンクの絨毯になります。悲しいのに、ハラハラ落ちている桜の花びらもとても素敵です。辰巳で。
I recently learned the word hanafubuki (花吹雪), which means flower blizzard. At the end of cherry blossom season, city pavement becomes a pink carpet. Along with watching the petals fall from the tree, this carpet is one of the best parts of hanami.
This photo is from a small park in Tatsumi, between Tokyo Bay and the southern edge of Shitamachi. It also borders Yumenoshima. Now that I discovered an Olympic pool in Tatsumi, I will be spending more time in this strange zone caught between nature, industry, trucking and warehouses, new and old housing, and stacked freeways.
Springtime at Omotesando Koffee. The small garden and old house make you feel like you’re on a country lane.
Omotesando Koffee の入口はとても素敵です。美味しいコーヒーが飲めるだけじゃなくて、小さい庭が四季を感じさせてくれます。春に、桜とモクレンが咲いていて、金属製の花瓶には毎週、違う花がいけてあります。おしゃれなお客さんは三年以上の常連で、バリスタオーナが東京に来る前に、大阪のカフェにも行きました。
This is the lovely entrance to Omotesando Koffee. It would be enough just being one of Tokyo’s best espresso coffee bars. O K also sells a single pastry that is eggy and square and incomparable. And O K has a micro-garden that is incredibly charming, with many traditional Japanese plants including maple and a lovely drooping cherry tree with long stemmed flowers.
The fashionable gentleman in the photo explained to me that he used to drink coffee at the Osaka coffee bar run by the same owner, before he moved to Tokyo three years ago. In the foreground is a lovely, metal sculpture and flower vase with understated petals.
Visiting Omotesando Koffee you feel like you’re on a country lane, not in the middle of a mega-city.
Twilight cherry blossoms at Aoyama cemetery
Cherry blossoms rising above giant buddha in Shinjuku Ni Chome temple
この新宿の二丁目のお寺は静かで広いところです。ここの桜が人を引き付けます。仏陀の赤い服はよだれかけみたいです。見ていると、お腹が減ってきます。
This temple in Shinjuku’s Ni Chome is a quiet open space in a crowded part of the city. It’s a great juxtaposition of the sacred and ordinary, nature and the built environment.
This day, the cherry tree in bloom seems to have enticed more people to enter. I am always charmed by the red cloth bibs place on buddha and ojizo statues. The bibs make me think the statues are preparing for a meal.
Like this:
The quince in front of our apartment building
マンションの前のカリンです。
Hanami-themed highball in a can
日本に来る前に、缶入りのハイボールを見たことがありませんでした。サントリーは花見用に特別な缶を作りました。
I had never seen a highball, or a whiskey and soda, in a can before coming to Japan. Here Suntory has dressed up the can for cherry blossom viewing.
Like this:
Mature cherry trees cross Nakameguro river. Nearly full bloom.
花見に中目黒の川はとてもきれいです。ほとんど満開でした。２０１２年４月６日。
Nakameguro river is one of the best spots for viewing hanami. Last Friday was approximately 80%. Much family, student, friends, and co-worker public drinking and nature appreciation!
Today it’s windy and raining, so perhaps the season is already over as the petals fall fast.
Like this:
Costume company has hanami party in Yoyogi Koen
コスチューム会社の花見パーティーです。忍者や鰐やライオンや熊や兎や蛙もいました。代々木公園で。
A costume company had a big hanami party in Yoyogi Koen. There was a ninja, crocodile, lion, bear, rabbit, and frog.
Like this:
Reserving a spot for the company hanami party. That’s a big blue sheet.
大きいなブルーシートの真ん中で座っている人が寂しいそうだったから、ちょっと話をしました。コンビニのビン二つを飲みながら、会社の花見パーティーのスペースを代々木公園で陣取っていました。
This guy sitting in the middle of his giant l-shaped blue sheet looked lonely so I chatted with him. He was already into his second can of convenience store booze. In Yoyogi Park.
