Spring is ON!

Hey folks,

The sun's been shining, the birds singing and I've taken to wearing shorts and flipflops when I ride my bike. It feels so great to get out and stretch my legs. As beautiful as the snow-scapes were, they are nothing compared to to the bursts of colours from the vast assortment of flowers in bloom.

Sooooo thankful I don't have my Mum's allergies.

I've even seen a sign for the Azalea festival at Tennou Shrine "downtown", and the road out front of the office is fully in bloom. A pity that the wind is howling, I hope the petals hold on tightly so that I can snap some pictures before they all blow away.

Golden "week" has come and gone, and I spent the days off resting at home. It's the most busy and expensive time of year to travel in Japan, as I'm not partial to either of those, I chose to stay in town and get some items checked off the ol' To Do list. Japan Post is going to be busy with me this week. The shikansen's parking lot was overflowing with cars all weekend long. Spotted this little rig set up for the night at the 七戸道の駅 ("Shichinohe road station" basically a tourist stop along the #4 highway. You can buy horse meat ramen, locally grown vegetables and other food and goods.)

I've been working on snapping photos of folks going about their business, this has proven quite difficult as 1) I don't have a telephoto lens so I can't shoot from a distance and 2) my mere presence causes folks to stop what they're doing (either to stare at me or run and hide). When I have my camera the urge to flee raises exponentially. Especially the old folks, and they are the most interesting characters that I see. Bowlegged and bent in half from years spent toiling in their fields, they go about their business in this small northern town. There have been a couple of times, while driving, that I wish I'd had my camera. For instance, during my morning commute to a school visit, the long line of cars stuck behind a trackers, creeping along one of the major roads. Or one afternoon, I caught up with a tractor, whose driver was chatting with an old woman as she strolled along with it down the other side of road. 

Trimming the trees to keep them away from the power lines has caused them to grown in an interesting way. I snapped these pictures this past weekend, 

Trimming the trees to keep
 them away from the power lines has
caused them to grown in an
interesting way.

I didn't touch the colours in this picture.

These pictures are from a week or so ago.

Down the road, towards the post office from my apartment.

Wanna buy a Benz? It was parked along the side of the
road, between my apartment and the supermarket.

Last weekend, I met up with Jade in Towada to enjoy the sakura blooming there. She and I checked out the festivities at the large park and along the main street (with the art gallery and all the outdoor statues). Handfuls of petals, shaved ice and a horse meat "roll" (more of a wrap, if you ask me, but no one ever does. :P Meat fried with onions, cheese and Japanese mayo in flour tortilla. Delicious. However the photograph appeared to promise more vegetables. Ah well.) There's no photographic evidence because I was too busy eating it to be bothered with a picture.

Post-park, we went for a stroll, and came across some peculiar sights. For one: This fancy tree bears some bizarre fruits. This is on the grounds of a shrine or temple (I still don't know the difference).

The second (and on a related note) was this barber shop sign... Cuts by Caruso? "スキンツーペ" (Skin toupee). Hair plugs? Transplant? Scapling? I'm not quite sure... (ok, after taking the time to look up: 男性かつら, it means gentleman's toupee).

... tho, I like my scalping theory better.

I went down to Sendai to run an errand the week before, and I found this deck of cards for myself. I'm a bit surprised at how few Legend of Zelda items I've been able to track down, but I suppose it's for the best. I've managed to do a pretty good job of not cluttering my home up with lots of "stuff", but it's always nice to get yourself a memento.

Chronologically, I should have posted these pictures first. These were taken in Dainohara park. I found it to be more like a forest. It was great. There were monkey trails which branched off the mail path, which lead deeper into the woods. You couldn't hear the city and there were no people around either. Just song birds. Heaven. I spent several hours there wandering around before heading back to the shops around Sendai station.

Had it not been for the skyscraper peeking over the trees, I'd have been able to completely forget the surrounding city. I'm looking forward to heading out to Juniko to get away from town this or next month (we'll see how the weather behaves). Farmer's fields and wind-breaker-tree-lines are a far cry from the national/provincial parks of my motherland. I did enjoy this sign within the park:

That's right. Don't drop your butts on the ground cuz ants will eat the filter. And we can't have that. There were lots of folks sitting around doing hanami along the major path through the park. Especially close to the science museum and the stations. I was tempted to go back amongst the trees again. :)

Soon enough, I'll have completed my contract and be on my way. Fingers crossed for what will come next. As wonderful as it's been out here, I look forward to being as free as this little Eurasian sparrow.