April 8th, 2011 in Daily
Windy, cloudy and later rainy day today, which made for perfect conditions to view the falling of the cherry blossom pedals. By the time I arrived at school, they had completely dotted the parking lot and were swirling around with each passing gust of wind. It was impossible to walk anywhere in the lot and not be surrounded by them.
Kind of a cool experience, especially now as the winds are carrying warm air up from the south. Mini sakura tornados (dust-devils) were sprouting up in the lot as well. It really looked like large flakes of snow blowing in the wind.
During cleaning time after lunch, students were out front with their witches’ brooms trying fruitlessly to sweep up the pedals, only to have them blown away seconds later. I joked with them about it and took (I hope) some really decent shots on film. B&W seemed appropriate for the occasion. Looking forward to seeing them developed and really wish I had the means of properly disposing the b&w chemistry here, as I’d simply do it myself.
Later, I joined the archery club for their o-hanami, or cherry blossom viewing party. By 4:30 it had started raining in full force, so we sat inside the archery club house and watched their large cherry blossom tree from inside. Everyone brought a lot of snacks in and we played what seemed like an hour long game UNO. Their rules are a little different from what I’m used to…
They drew a picture of me being admired by a student with speech bubbles. The student's says "Cool! <3" and mine says something like "Matthew is also visiting <3"
More soon once I get the film back.
