While we did get a few spectacularly sunny days in Kanazawa for hanami, two cold fronts and storms rolled through during the two weeks of blooming. Kanazawa, moody as always.
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Posts Tagged ‘Kanazawa’
Cloudy Sakura at the Former Takamine Residence
Posted in Kanazawa, Photography, tagged cherry blossoms, cloudy, 花美, hanami, Jokichi Takamine, Kanazawa, sakura, spring, Takamine residence, 桜 on 2013/04/15 | 3 Comments »
Utatsuyama Plum Grove
Posted in Kanazawa, Photography, tagged 金沢, Ishikawa, japan, Kanazawa, March, photography, plum, plum blossom, plum grove, spring, 梅の花, 梅林 on 2013/03/24 | Leave a Comment »
Utatsuyama (卯辰山) is a small mountain in Kanazawa that stands taller than even the castle, and the Utatsuyama Park (卯辰山公演) area, accessible from Higashi Chaya-gai (tea district), is home to a number of gardens, including the iris garden I visited last summer. Last week, I hiked to the plum grove, which, in addition to Kenrokuen’s much larger plum grove, is one of the best places to view the plum blossoms in the city.
Petals on a Wet, Black Bough
Posted in Kanazawa, Photography, tagged Ezra Pound, flowers, In the Station of the Metro, Ishikawa, japan, Kanazawa, petals, photography, plum blossoms, plums, poem, poetry, spring, Travel on 2013/03/09 | 2 Comments »
“In a Station of the Metro”
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
— Ezra Pound
Kanazawa no Ame (Kanazawa Rain)
Posted in Architecture, Kanazawa, Photography, tagged autumn, 紅葉, 金沢, fall, foliage, garden, Ishikawa, japan, Kanazawa, Kenrokuen, photography, 兼六園, 写真 on 2012/11/24 | 3 Comments »
Photos take at Kenrokuen, Kanazawa, 17 Nov. 2012.
Text: selections from「金沢の雨」(Kanazawa no Ame) by Miyuki Kawanaka (川中美幸) (my translation)
東京言葉と 加賀なまり
I love Tokyo words with a Kaga accent
Halloween in Japan: Decorations
Posted in Consumer Culture, Expat Living, Halloween, Visual Culture, tagged decorating, decoration, Halloween, Halloween in Japan, japan, Kanazawa, pumpkin on 2012/10/31 | Leave a Comment »
What have we learned about Halloween in Japan this year?
Kanazawa Forus
Although Halloween seems to be mainly marketed through food in the broader consumer world, Halloween decorations in retailers and for home use seem to be growing in popularity and availability.
In Search of Kanazawa’s Hydrangeas: Utatsuyama Iris Garden
Posted in Kanazawa, Photography, tagged アジサイ, 花菖蒲, flowers, hydrangea, iris, Kanazawa, park, summer, Utatsuyama, 卯辰山 on 2012/07/22 | 11 Comments »
After my ajisai adventures in Kamakura, I decided to try my luck in Kanazawa. Kenrokuen, our most famous garden, shockingly has no hydrangeas! I didn’t go until late June, so I was a little late for iris season. However, I was able to capture this picture of a butterfly on one of the few remaining irises.
Dissatisfied with Kenrokuen (seriously, no hydrangeas?), I decided to try my flower-viewing luck at Utatsuyama’s iris garden (hanashôbuen, 花菖蒲園), which is located up the “mountain” (hill, really) of Utatsuyama, behind the Higashi Chaya-gai (東茶屋街).
Sakura Conversion
Posted in Culture, Kanazawa, Photography, tagged cherry blossoms, Kanazawa, Kazuemachi, Kenrokuen, photography, plum blossoms, sakura, tea district on 2012/04/23 | 6 Comments »
Plum blossoms in Kenrokuen. 6 April 2012.
I admire plum blossoms more than sakura on principle. Plum blossoms bloom in the last throes of winter, often surviving Ishikawa’s final snow storm. They smell sweeter and are more tenacious. There’s nothing sakura can do in form or shape that a plum can’t: they can be subtly tinged with pink or violently fuchsia; they can hang from delicate weeping boughs or bloom among thick, gnarled branches. But perhaps because of their staying power, taking several weeks to blossom fully, then remaining for another week or so before fading, they don’t induce the same joie de vivre that their more famous cousin, the cherry blossom, does.
Hidden Kanazawa
Posted in Architecture, Culture, Kanazawa, Photography, tagged architecture, European, japanese, Kanazawa, log cabin, photography, shrine, temple on 2011/09/13 | 6 Comments »
Happy 100th post to me!
There’s a lot of Kanazawa that visitors don’t see. This is probably because the main roads, which are the bus routes, are easier to stick to when walking, particularly those that lead from the station to Kohrinbo and Katamachi, the heart of downtown. The narrow back streets, however, are much easier to use when biking, and biking everywhere in Kanazawa has really opened my eyes to this area I didn’t know existed.
さようなら、愛してきた田舎!
Posted in Culture, Ishikawa, Rural Life, tagged Ishikawa, Kanazawa, rural Japan on 2011/08/04 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been working on a post about getting attacked by caterpillars, but preparations for moving have delayed me. I’ve taken a new job in Kanazawa and am without regular access to internet, so updates may be slow.
My feelings about this are complicated–I’m thrilled to death about my new job and to live in a city again. My new apartment is in a good location and has fancy things like hot-water taps. I can go to Kenrokuen anytime I want, and I can go on weekend trips more easily from the train station.
On Twitter
- Fit and Feminist: What happens when the pursuits of “skinny” and “strong” collide? ow.ly/lhqMH 13 hours ago
- RT @whsaito: Nice to see #Japan on the cover of the Economist. Good article on the state of Abenomics too. economist.com/news/briefing/… http://t.… 23 hours ago
- RT @RuSumida: So many gender issues similarities between China and Japan mobile.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/opi… 23 hours ago
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