This post is two seasons late!
Pardon my beautiful pink spring flowers
as we prepare for the oranges and yellows of fall.
Many moons ago,
my dad was stationed in Tokyo
until being sent to fight in the Korean War.
As a tween and teenager,
his fondness for Japan was made embarrassingly clear
everytime he would answer the phone with 'moshi moshi'.
My friends in small town Texas were unimpressed. Ha!
Anywho...
when choosing the itinerary for my parents and 'the foodie'
to visit this side of the world,
a stopover in Tokyo made perfect sense...
especially since their visit coincided with the last few weeks of March.
Even the birds perched patiently...
waiting for those cheerful pink buds to appear.
Fortunately,
there was one overachiever...
to provide the perfect backdrop for our generational photos.
When the guide heard my dad practicing his Japanese
and mentioning areas of Tokyo he remembered...
she thoughfully catered our tour
 |
| Shibuya Flower Project |
to offer him a glimpse of Tokyo today...
and how it has held on to its past...
amidst inevitable change.
Hamarikyu Gardens offers a stroll
through an old duck hunting ground...
and is home to this 300 year old pine tree.
As the others meandered about...
'the foodie' and I savored a casual DIY tea ceremony...
in a teahouse used to entertain senior samurai
and imperial family members in the past.
A few months earlier,
when Ren Man and I explored Tokyo on foot,
we were able to walk around...
one of Tokyo's largest graveyards...
so big in fact, it has its own police station.
Most days, a stroll through the twenty five acre garden like property
offers complete solitude,
with the exception of two days of the year
when family members spend the day cleaning around the family gravesite.
Spring, and the fast approaching, Autumn equinox.
Being familiar with Spring cleaning
any connection with equinox never occurred to me.
Meanwhile...
next stop...
Kyoto.
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