Now is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Spring By this Rising Sun

Hey everyone!
I want to apologize for not posting for so long, and not having any pictures. My digicam is acting wiggy, and will not take photos, and I was not able to upload new pics. I can look at all the old ones, but not add new ones. I was posting the pictures on my phone cam, but since I got the new one, I cannot figure out how to send emails, because even though I asked them to give me a phone with English components on it, they did not, and my Japanese, while improving by leaps and bounds, is still not good enough to read the manual. As soon as I figure it out, I will have more photos for you. I also took alot of pictures on a disposable camera, but no one would print it with a cd accompanying. So, I got nothin. And, therefore, you got nothing too.

But, the beauties of Spring are here, and so are the cherry blossoms. If you have heard tales of the Japanese going nuts for the flowers, well, it is true. They pretty much have Fourth of July style picnics all during the "official" two week period of Sakura watching. About as much alchohol is consumed as well, and there are people who will march up and down Japan, to follow the blossom openings all the way up Honshu, the main island of Japan. Some of my students were depressed this week, because they said that the rain had washed away the blossoms already. When I reminded them that only about one-fourth of the trees had bloomed, really, and that there were three times as many blossoms to come, they radiated. I wish I could be making that up.





But, it is an indication of the tie between a culture and an important metaphor, because inherant in the idea of cherry blossoms is the heralding of spring, which is a very comfortable season here in Japan. Cherry blossoms are cheery, pink and delicate. They can be easily washed away, and no-one forgets that April is a dicey month, where, yes, you can have 65-75 degree F days, but you can just as easily have a snowstorm, which kills the flowers, only to melt away a few days later, bringing more warm weather, but not flowers. Blossoms are like people, easily destroyed, but there will always be more, with the same hopes. And we are all beautiful while we bloom.