cherry trees

Last year the cherry blossoms were at their best at the end of March. I enjoyed those beautiful cherry blossoms in Kunitachi City, Tokyo. There are a lot of cherry trees planted along each side of the Daigaku-Dori . I do not know how old they are. They are very tall and thick, and around the roots of their trunks you can see lovely purple flowers named Orychophragmus violaceus ( hana-daikon ). People in Kunitachi should be proud of those cherry trees. They really take very good care of those cherry trees.



I've just come back from walking along Tamagawa Josui, the man-made waterway. I walked 5000steps. There are also a great many cherry trees along Tamagawa Josui. No cherry trees are in bloom. But all the branches have pink buds. So, they will burst out very soon.

I have ever seen a very,very beautiful and visionary scene in Niigata. It was the day of my daughter's entrance ceremony of Kyoto University--on April 7, 1987. I had to work, had no time to go to Kyoto, and I did not attend the ceremony of course. I stayed in Niigata and was thinking of my daughter.

I suddenly looked out of the window. Then, to my surprise, the spring snow was coming down when the cherry trees were in full bloom. White snow drifting among the beautiful cherry blossoms---words cannot describe the scene.

What a beautiful day!

What a beautiful day!

I see the tall trees of Tamagawa Josui against the blue balmy skies. I hear their twigs rustles in the soft spring breeze. They have no leaves yet. I see a pair of crows making their nest. They are busy going out and in.　

I'm lying in bed and watching out of the window of my apartment. How I wish I could go up Shiroyama and see Mt. Fuji! Sorry to say, I still have some pain somewhere in the ankle today. Oh, take me where I can see Mt. Fuji!!
　

Alas, another great earthquake!

I woke up at six o'clock this morning and turned on the radio as usual. I was surprised and got up out of bed at the news that another great earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia!

Alas! It's only three months since they had such a great earthquake and destructive tsunamis, killer waves, caused by the earthquake. People there haven't got over the shock yet. Many of the sufferers have neither homes to live in nor enough food to eat. They are at a loss how to live. Again this morning another 'great' earthquake shook them.

It is reported that on Nias Island more than 300 people died and hundreds more were injured. The quake is considered a 'great' earthquake, the largest of seven grades. The grades are very minor, minor, light, moderate, strong and great.

I can't find any words to comfort them. All I can do is to donate a certain sum of money from my private purse.

The 1857 Fort Tejon Earthquake: A Poem

How awful is the thought of the wonders
under ground
Of the mystic changes wrought in the silent,
dark profound
-from the Santa Barbara Gazette, January 22, 1857
　

Do you like a rainy day?

It has been raining all day---not the pouring rain but the drizzly rain. Yesterday we had a lovely Sunday here in Tokyo. But today we have a blue　Monday. It is not so warm as yesterday. I know rainy days are also necessary for all the spring flowers to wake from their long winter sleep.

I've just come home in the rain. I found it a little bit difficult to walk in the rain, because I had a stick in my right hand and an umbrella in my left hand. The road was wet and the toe of the stick was slippery. I should have not been out today.

Do you like a rainy day? Oh, yes, you do, if you have a pollen allergy. On rainy days you feel much better--no runny nose, no sneezes, no tearful eyes, etc.

I hope it will not rain after the cherry blossoms come out. Let them in bloom as long as possible. I heartily hope spring rain will not cause snowslides or landslides in those earthquake disaster areas--Chuetsu in Niigata and Fukuoka in Kyushu.

(Nursery Rhymes by Mother Goose)

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again another day;
Little Johnny wants to play.

Spring has come.

When I get up in the morning., the first thing I do is to open the window. The window of my apartment faces the Tamagawa Josui, which is the man-made waterway running from Hamura to Shinjuku. Along Tamagawa Josui runs the road called "Green Walking Road."

It was such a lovely Sunday today. Many people were walking, jogging or running along the Tamagawa Josui. Seeing them, I felt my heart filled with joy of living. In the afternoon I visited my daughter and took her five year-old daughter for a walk. I like walking with her, for she loves wild flowers and she is sensitive to the change of nature.

She was delighted to find "vapor trail, hikouki-gumo" in the beautiful blue sky. She shouted for joy when she found a yellow dandelion in the bush. We saw Japanese apricots, Ume, in full bloom, too. They were pink. Yes, very beautiful. We were very happy to find little flowers whose names we did not know.

I was happiest when I found those daffodils which perhaps W. Wordsworth had seen when he wrote the poem. Today I walked 10112 steps with a stick in my hand and a fixing band on my left foot.

Daffodils by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.