ohanami at terao park - 22 april 2006

Please take note that future updates will be delayed :p Hence the late date of each title, heh.



We went for our 2nd ohanami at Terao Park, somewhere nearer to our campus. This was mainly attended by the postgrad students from the Niigata University and the International University of Japan.



The weather at this time was getting slightly better. In fact the skies were blue with little clouds in sight, making photo sessions an enjoyable experience. So much better than the ohanami session the previous week.



Niigata is widely known for its tulips, they grow in abundance here. In almost every park, sidewalk and Japanese gardens, you can find tulips of various colours and sizes. Japanese flowers in general seem to look so beautiful I mistook them for fake flowers. They hardly have erm, dents or scratches on them. Quite perfect, if I may say so.



Niigata has quite an interesting geographical location. Separating the city and the sea are some moutains. In fact, the nearest beach is probably a good 15 minutes walk from the west end of the university campus. Too bad, that beach area is not for recreational use. But the sunset pics in the Easter post was taken there.



Whenever I look at these pictures from my laptop, I still cannot believe that I'm in Japan, experiencing the ohanami which everyone talks about every spring. Back in Malaysia, I used to get emails with sakura pictures and wonder what the heck is so special about this cherry blossom flower.



But when I come here and see the sakura flowers for myself, and notice how delicate and fragile they are, I realise these are really such beautiful flowers. The ohanami is a much anticipated event in spring and Japanese take the opportunity to have picnics under the sakura trees.



They don't last very long once they bloom. Seeing the petals of the sakura flowers dropping from the trees is like looking at snow fall from the sky. Not that I've seen snow myself, but I imagine that's how it might be. It's quite an ethereal feeling which I can't quite describe. It's just something one has to experience for himself to know how it feels.



After almost a month here, I still cannot believe I'm actually in Japan doing the ohanami!