Yesterday we went to 湯島天神 (Yushima-Tenjin Shrine) in 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo).
The 梅の花 (Plum blossoms) were beginning to bloom. (They had posters up advertising their annual 梅の祭 (Plum Festival) that they will hold beginning next week.)
It’s a beautiful shrine…especially when the plum blossoms are in bloom.
At the shrine, my wife and I each bought a cup of 甘酒 (a hot, sweet fermented rice drink. (lit. sweet sake)). It’s often sold at Japanese shrines in the winter.
It was good.
Here are a few photos I took yesterday:
Booth selling "Daruma".
千羽鶴 ("1000 Paper Cranes") for luck.
Plum blossom
From the shrine, we went to a nearby department store (I have a wife and three teenage daughters. Of course, they love to shop!).
The floor selling make-up and women’s clothes also had a display of Valentine’s chocolates (I mentioned in a previous post that women give hand-made chocolate to men on Valentine’s Day in Japan. Click here to read it.)
「ハートチョコ」 (♥-shaped chocolate) and 「ハートせんべい」 (♥-shaped rice crackers)
「ハートせんべい」 ( ♥-shaped rice crackers)
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By the way, those visitors to my site who are in Japan…did you feel that 地震 (earthquake) at about 6:30AM yesterday?
Tokyo Five 
What’s the difference between cherry blossom and plumb blossom trees?
I haven’t heard of a plum blossom tree before now
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>What’s the difference between cherry blossom and plumb blossom trees?
Well, they’re different trees with different flowers (albeit similar looking).
The fruit of 桜 (Cherry Blossoms) isn’t the cherries that people eat. 梅の花 (Plum Blossom) are the flowers of plum (the edible fruit) trees.
As I said, the flowers look a lot alike but not exactly. Plum Flowers have round petals,unlike the more unique shape of the petals on Cherry Blossom flowers.
They also bloom at different times of the year.
And, Plum Blossoms are from China. Traditional Chinese art often shows these flowers.
Cherry Blossoms are from Japan. Traditional Japanese art often shows these flowers.
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>I was just reading some news article which said that Mount Asama…erupted
Yes, actually, I’m writing a post about it right now.
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> did you feel that 地震 (earthquake) at about 6:30AM yesterday?
No, but I was probably fast asleep anyway :-).
I was just reading some news article which said that Mount Asama, 150 kilometres (95 miles) northwest of Tokyo, erupted early Monday at 2:00 am.
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Thank you.
And I added your site to my links section, too. 🙂
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I have added your blog to my blogroll and plugged it in my posted entry. Your blog is very entertaining! Congrats!
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