park

Salix

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This are pics from my birth town, somewhere in the far west of Romania. The river is the heart of the city. No one really bothers with it, so nature sometimes claims its shores, in a truly romantic way… Okay, okay…

It’s more like a place for hobos to sleep and to take a shit. And you don’t go there unless you wanna get mugged. But I remember the hot summers of my childhood, when I watched all the happy children swing from the low dipping branches of the weeping willows. Yeah, watched, cause I couldn’t swim, and most of the time I was sick.

 

 

 

Cherry trees in Japan

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2014 and 2015.

Hanami, the cherry flowers in Japan.

What is Japan without its cherry flowers? Japanese people go crazy over a proper flowering cherry tree. As you can imagine, there are so many varieties (over 200), all of them cultivated for their bloom.

The color variations go from: white, pink, cream, peach, yellow to nearly green.

I was most impressed by the “sad cherry”. I dubbed it sad cherry, cause I had no other name for it. There is the one pic I held my hand out. Then, six months later, I saw a Prunus incisa “Kojo-No-Mai” at a shopping mall. I had to buy one. I wanted it to be my first proper bonsai tree.

Back to the question: Why do the Japanese admire the cherry flowers?

Hiroshima Castle Park

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2015. February.

On my way through Japan, Hiroshima is a must.

I’m really sorry that I didn’t take more pictures of those stunning tree-survivors of the nuclear bomb. Somehow it didn’t seem to be appropriate to run around, with my face glued to the cam. I can’t quite explain why. At that moment I wanted to suck up all the impressions, without any digital help.

First, it was very peaceful, prowling around Hiroshima-jo (sometimes called RIJO- meaning Carp Castle) I had the feeling, that even the birds and the cicadas were keeping it down.

Have some pictures of the garden:

 

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and of course, the well known building, the bomb exploded upon:

 

Deer Park in Nara

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2015. February. Nara.

Nara is a wonderful place, tiny town with a deer park you could have cut out of a Miyazaki movie.

Ancient trees, check!

Just look at the nebari of the big one in the second pic!

 

Friendly animals, check!

You can see some sika deer in the first three pics. They are considered divine animals and the folks around there simply love them. They get fed and the animals are allowed to wander around the shrines and temples.

They even learned to bow, to obtain special deer biscuits. Proof? I’d happily post here two videos, but I just can’t seem to figure out how…

Well, that’s that! Try clicking here and here.

 

 

Temples and shrines, check!