Sakura Overload

Pooch says that once you've seen one cherry tree in blossom you've seen them all. I disagree, which is why I have three further gardens to show you, while Pooch spent his time with me at one of them keeping firmly to the footpaths and determinedly not enjoying himself.

It all began last week at the Tokyo National Museum which only opens its gardens for the few weeks of cherry blossom season. Determined not to miss this opportunity to visit both the Museum and the Garden I went over there.

The Museum is very impressive, being a kind of V&A equivalent for Japanese artifacts. It also allowed me to take part in my first ever Stamp Rally - something that is apparently quite big here where you collect stamps at different points around a venue or area, and when you have sufficient you get a prize. In this case the little badge top left.

 

The gardens were quite small but very well kept. They also contained my first 'zen' garden I've seen since arriving here. By that I mean with the raked gravel.

One of the oddities of Cherry Blossom is that as well as the main branches, you get little puffs of it on the trunk itself.

These give you the opportunity for close up shots, since the branches are often a bit high up for that.

Just opposite the Museum is Ueno Park - a big park famed for its blossom and thus PACKED with people. I should explain the schools are on holiday at the moment with the new school year starting tomorrow, so everyone was up for a party.

As you can see at the far end of the pond, this park is famed for its walkways where there is blossom on both sides and it often meets overhead.

Wherever you find blossom you will also find Hanami Parties sitting on their large tarpaulin sheets under the tress.

You get office workers, families and also groups of teenagers getting politely drunk on the national equivalent of Diamond White (cheap cider english people my age will remember with slight revulsion from their youth).

These parties were also in full swing at Shinkuju Gyoen National Garden which Pooch and I lastvisited in December (and which I blogged about here). The difference the spring has made was very evident. I'm just going to let the photos speak for themselves.

Plus of course the Byrne in full bloom.

Hopefully this post gives an idea of why I do not get tired of looking at cherry blossom - the variety and the context are both very special factors.

I am off to England on Thursday to help my sister out. I hope to fit in one more cherry experience before then and to continue blogging while I'm away. I have been squirreling away various props for use with Jasmine when she and I are left alone together so be ready for some unconventional baby photos in the near future!

Cherry Blossom Fit For a Prince

Naturally since my niece Jasmine was born at around the same time as Prince George, and further because she is the cutest thing ever...

...I expect them to marry. Perhaps they will honeymoon in Tokyo in April. Then they will truly make the title of this blogpost true and not just a long winded way of saying this is the garden of the Prince Sakura Tower Hotel. If you are in Tokyo then the garden is free to visit, although to be honest there are much better ones. I was just in the vicinity and it is open on Mondays, which is when I went.

I know I have already gushed about this in a previous post, but the masses of flowers are very beautiful and just ridiculously japanese.

This garden also boasted the largest Koi I've ever seen.

Random woman's hand included for scale.

As if two blossom visits were not enough, yesterday I went to the gardens at Tokyo National Museum which are only open to the public for a few weeks during the blossoming. The Museum happens to be opposite Ueno Park which is another blossomtastic venue and I took many pictures, which you can expect to see here in coming days.

Before I forget, registration for this swap closes in a few days.

There are still places left so click here to read more about it.

March Makes

Considering this month included a week of parental visit I think I've achieved quite a few FOs.

Going top to bottom and left to right we have...
1. Whale for Jasmine - see below for more
2. Washi Picture Frames - a kit my Mum chose when they were here and asked me to make for her.
3. Scrapbooked photo album - of when the parents were here. This is my first go at any kind of paper craft since my ATC phase in about 2007 and I'm rather pleased with it.
4. Owl socks - see below for more
5. Jasmine's cardigan
6. My hat - epic
7. Cat bag
8. Swatch holder from the online Colour course I did
9. Patch for one of my oldest tops made out of 1/3" hexagons.
10. Lucy Boston block for Jan
11. Mum's bling earrings - see below for more
12. Sian's bling ring - see below for more

I am not exactly an inactive blogger but it seems I've failed to blog about more than half of these which seems odd. Here are a few close ups of things. Jasmine's whale first.

This is a kit from the washi paper shop which intrigued me as it uses the (patented) Easy Tuck! system.

You stick printed stickers on the wrong side of the fabric, cut out your shapes, peel the sticker off the fabric and the board (which is pre-cut and also sticky) and pop the two together. You then stuff the ends into the gaps with some sort of purpose made thing I didn't buy, or a bodkin.

My first attempt left a few loose threads tufting out but I always enjoy trying something new and this was a quick little project.

The other thing for Jasmine is a summer cardi which I knitted using some discounted red cotton from Yuzawaya.

The pattern is a free one from Knitty which you can find here. My other knitting feat was finally finishing the socks I'd been doing a row or two at a time on.

I used the free pattern 'Aquaphobia' which you can find here but omitted the cable. I think this is my third pair with this pattern which is a great one for hand painted yarn that you suspect is going to pool.

Finally, last month I made myself a blingy ring after seeing a sample at Kiwa in Asakasabushi. I took my Mum there and she loved it too, but wanted hers in white as earrings. She's a clip-on wearer so the availability of such things is limited. We bought the parts and...ta da!

When I made my ring I offered to make my sister one too but with more stars (she has a thing about stars). Hers is on the left, my original make is on the right.

I really like using the smaller elements together. Perhaps more of this bling will be appearing in the future!

Recent knitting leaves me without anything on the needles, other than a mass of UFOs of course but then we know those don't count. I will need to think of something since I have a 12.5 hour plane ride coming up when I return to the UK for a visit!