Blog - Sakura #5: Ukima-kōen (w/ bonus UFO tale)
Sakura #5: Ukima-kōen (w/ bonus UFO tale)
After some winter weather days, spring is back! Today is very warm and perfect for hanami. While a lot of the flowers have fallen down because of the rain and winds, trees still hold a lot, and the petals are just fragile enough to be slowly carried down by the wind.
A few days ago, my workmate reminded me that Ukima-kōen, that park with the phony windmill (#1, #2), must be full of sakura. So today I went there for the whole lunch time and did hanami on my own. Thanks to the great weather, the park was actually full of people (mostly moms and their kids, and some groups of students) doing hanami. The park was also decorated for a sakura matsuri.
Just as Roy proclaimed that hanami season is over, I'm glad to prove him wrong. :) I predict that hanami is still kicking over the weekend.
Larger photos and a few more at Flickr
Oh, and on my way to this park I had one of the funniest encounters. It involved a UFO but was not of the 3rd kind.
I was hungry and riding my bicycle full speed when I passed by two guys wearing suits who were walking in the opposite direction, one said "konnichi wa!" so I stopped to see what they wanted. He was carrying a large bag from which he pulled out a boxed remote control UFO toy (something like this). I first thought he wanted to give it to me, the box was pretty big and I almost wondered how it would fit in my bag. Together they were carrying three of the things.
The guy started telling me that they are importing these (the box only had English text). He showed me the $39.95 price printed on the box, and asked me if I wanted it for ¥2200? Without hesitation I said "no thanks", and right away he dropped the price to ¥1100! Then I said I have no interest in buying one, and wished them good luck and left.
Minutes later I was still laughing to myself about this stupid scene of the two failed-remote-controlled-UFO-import-venture guys trying to sell me dead stock in the middle of nowhere. At that moment I passed some obasan who seemed to think I was laughing at her. Sorry! :)
Posted on April 7, 2007 at 01:20 | Tweet
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nice pictures. But with the windmill in it, it almost looks like Holland hehe :)
Posted by Papigiulio on April 7, 2007 at 15:24