Sakura by the Gazillions!

Cherry trees are native to Japan and China, with the first Cherry Blossom Festival being held in 1935 to celebrate the beauty and charm of these "awesome blossoms."   In Japan, cherry trees and their blossoms are called "sakura." It's said that the delicate, short-lived flower is compared to life--beautiful, yet fleeting.  More simply, they symbolize that "warm weather is on its way."   Hooray!  (If it's just warm and not hot!)

We thought we had seen beautiful cherry blossoms while living in the Washington DC area, but I must say what we have experienced here in Japan just "blows that out of the water!"  On Saturday, April 7, we went with eleven other Senior Missionaries from our Japan Tokyo Mission, some serving as temple missionaries and others serving at the PBO (Presiding Bishop's Office for Northeast Asia).  Our ever-faithful-at-planning-outings, Elder and Sister Bridge (she's in pink below), planned the morning's event and directed us as we made a couple of changes on the subway to arrive at the #1 sakura-viewing site in Tokyo.

When we first exited the subway, we headed towards a popular (and sometimes unpopular) war memorial shrine.  It is popular for its sakura and its proximity to the Imperial Palace, but it is unpopular in that it celebrates war.  Oftentimes there are sit-ins and demonstrations at this shrine area, but we were lucky that Saturday as its notoriety was due to its beautiful sakura.  Note the torii at the entrance to the shrine.

The first shot and this one below give you a little idea of the millions of Japanese who also thought it was a great day for viewing the sakura!  Actually, since the blossoms only last a week or 10 days, we were very lucky.  They had just peaked on that Saturday, and by Thursday of this week, a rain/wind storm had done its best to put a great deal of the blossoms on the ground.  And by this Saturday, a second storm did away with the rest.  Just one week's worth is all we got this year!  Darn it!  I wanted them to last all spring!

Here is a closeup of these favorite blossoms!

This shot and the one below show the one tree in all of Tokyo that the weathermen use for officially determining what day the blossoms have truly peaked and are ready to be admired.  Note all the support and care being given to keep this important tree able to carry on its "duty."

 A smaller torii in front of one of the temples at the site.

 And here was a demonstration of the tea ceremony

 We have left the shrine area (now behind the sakura) and have headed down the street to the "ichi-ban (#1) spot," the walkway along the outer edge of the moat at the Imperial Palace.

Here's our first view of the moat with sakura both at the distant side as well as right along our path.  Note the boaters below enjoying an up-close-and-personal view!

I just can't get over what beautiful little flowers these are!

And it just gets better and

better

and better

etc.

You get the idea!

See what I mean!  I probably took over 60 pictures, discarding some when I saved them to my computer; and now I'm having to cut back here as well or you'd be looking at these until our return home!

We were so amazed at how some of these very old cherry trees headed straight out horizontally over the river bank.  It was like the branches were reaching out to the water.  We've seen the same outreach

at other river banks as well.  Very interesting!

     Lean to the left!                                                              Lean to the right!

        And just be all over the place!!!

 Here are all the shimais (Sisters)--Galbraith, Donohoe, Johnsen, Grames, Rich, Bridge, & Meisman

And the chouros (Elders)--Galbraith, Donohoe, Johnsen, Grames, Rich, & Bridge

The only thing that could be a proper close to the morning would be to take the subway and head to Bubba Gumps for shrimp!  It is located at the Tokyo Station where there is an amusement park and the Tokyo Giants stadium.  Elder G really wished the roller coaster had been running...

 ...and he was still wanting to ride it even when he saw this!

 

Cute!

But the neatest thing at this stop was the Best Ever Shrimp Dinner either of us has ever had!  It may not have been cheap, but we all agreed it was worth every YEN!

I loved the license plates on the table!  If you weren't ready to order, you let Forrest run.  But once you were ready to order or needed something later on, you flipped over the license plate to read Stop Forrest Stop!  We were seated in what was designed to look like his Southern Mama's big dining room, complete with a picture of Sally Fields! The rest of the seating was more typical of a casual fish restaurant.

And I couldn't resist taking this shot of the baby seat in the bathroom stall so mom can have her hands free!

Outside the restaurant was a bench, a suitcase, a box of chocolates, and a worn pair of tennis shoes.  Unfortunately, I am ever so frustrated that my camera decided to die at that moment.  

But what a great day this was!  After 21 straight days of showing up at the office, whether for a full day or for just an hour or two, Elder G and I were truly ready for a day off.  Our wonderful mission president, President Albrecht, doesn't care what we do or where we go as long as the work is done and we let him know our destination.  Pretty great rules for missionaries, wouldn't you say!

I'm going to "cheat" and throw in a couple more pictures which were sent to me.  The Bridges went back out on Monday and shot a couple more great photos.  The second one is with a popular Tokyo landmark

in the background.

This last one is of our favorite bridge from our past stay in Japan over 40 years ago, the Kintai Bridge in Iwakuni.  We were there on a cold February morning this year, so it was nice to receive a photo of it in the spring with the ever beautiful sakura along the river bench.  This makes a very nice parting shot for this post!