On the same evening we took our family self portrait among the cherry blossoms, Anthony enjoyed his new bubble machine. He hadn't played with it since the day we had a nice hanami drive, and so was really in the mood to bubble.

(In the background, you can see Fumie and the bench on which we took the self portrait)

We're leaving for a trip to Hokkaido this evening. Will bring the bubbler....

Walking back from photographing the hyper-fluffy cherry blossoms earlier this week, I noticed a striking red/orange bug on a tree. I hate bugs -- they give me the creeps -- but I had my extension tubes, so I thought to try some pseudo-macro photography by using one with my Sigma 30mm.

The quality of the shot isn't that great, but it's my best non-blossom macro shot ever (but only on a technicality, because it's my only non-blossom macro shot). A good photographer would be able to make a stunning photograph (see some in this macro shots of the week thread [...]

Fumie is getting extra creative with Anthony's bentos these days. In honor of the upcoming Children's Day holiday, during which koinobori (carp streamers) are flown to symbolize and hope for children's strength, today's bento has koinobori-shaped wieners.

As a bonus, there are little fish mixed in with the veggies.

We have large streamers that we normally fly from the balcony, but this weekend we're heading to Furano in Hokkaido (Japan's northern large island) for a mini trip. According to Yahoo! Weather, next week's highs look to be about as warm as here (20°C; 68°F), but the lows (freezing) are colder [...]

Unlike yesterday when I photographed the voluptuous cherry blossoms of my previous post, today was misty/spritzy all day. One nice thing about such days is that the bed of stones filling some of the alcoves in my building glisten sumptuously, and I enjoy them for brief moments as I walk by.

On one such day, I paused to take a picture of them, and I thought some might enjoy such an image as a desktop background, and hence this post. Links below the image above lead to sizes appropriate for common desktops, both standard and widescreen.

Personally, I like [...]

Imagine taking 10 gallons of white and pink blossoms, and forcefully shoving them onto a branch capable of holding at most half that amount, and that's the feeling you currently get from two trees in my neighborhood.

I don't know what kind of trees these are. If they are cherry trees, they're blooming long after all the other cherry trees in this neighborhood.

Update: thanks to Aaron and Andy for identifying them as "yaezakura" or "botanzakura" cherry blossoms.

These blossoms range from almost pure white to a mildly deep, rich pink, often the whole range being found on [...]