Sakura
Live is so much more interesting when plans get changed…
Sunday we had made plans to do a beach clean-up out in front of a friends beach house on the Japan Sea. We had visited the house last week, and I was a bit shocked by the amount of flotsam and jetsam that had ridden the strong winter waves far up the beach. I spent most of the day sifting through the piles of plastic bottles, lost fishing lures, beer cans, and other random items while my son played in the sand. I had not planned to clean the beach, so we had no garbage bags with which to cart off all the garbage, which was why we planned to return this past weekend.
As it turned out, our friend who owns the beach house decided to take us for Hanami (Cherry Blossom viewing) instead.
We drove two hours to get to the perfect spot, a two kilometer long walkway along a river lined with cherry trees in full bloom. The wind was a bit strong, and had a bit of a bite, but it was well worth it as the petals drifted down like pink snow as we walked along the river. While most of us spent our time looking up into the trees, or following the dancing patterns of the falling petals, our son spent the day looking down to the ground. Somehow he was more drawn to the fallen petals on the walkway than the full blossoming trees. Maybe it was the contrast of pink on black…
He diligently collected the fallen petals one-by-one until his hands were full, and then he would transfer them to my pockets before returning to his task. I came home with a few photos, and a pocket full of petals to remember the day by.