This year Cherry Blossoms started to bloom earlier. In Kansai area, this weekend will be the peak. JR has a nice Kyoto campaign TV ad, Nanzen temple is well known for its great view with Cherry Blossoms. Talking about Kyoto, I found this Shop near my house: 'Karan Koron Kyoto'. They sell Kyoto concept items, one of them is this paste perfume. I love the cherry one. It's a nice souvenir for girls.
In Makuhari, a new rest area opened on Keiyo Road. Daily Portal z reported on 'Makuhari Pasar'. Wow it looks like a food court!!. In Tokyo, the biggest food court would be okawari jp in Tokyo midtown. You can enjoy various kinds of food from all over the world. Actually it would be good for foreign people because you can try many types of Japanese food in small portions. I recommend the place.
I sometimes mentioned Utagawa Kuniyoshi as my favorite Ukiyoe artist. The ones I like the best are the Goldfish series; I like the cat series, too. Today I found this Page: Tanuki series. Tanuki is a Japanese word for a raccoon-dog animal. Maybe you know about Tanuki from the Ghibli animation movie 'Pom Poko'. I wrote about Tanuki in this post; Tanuki is the most popular motif for Shigaraki pottery with a cute face, a bottle of alcohol and his 'big bag'. Kuniyoshi's ukiyoe overdramatizes its size. Look at this, Tanuki use their bag as a carrier, a hunting net, a fishing net, an umbrella....ha ha ha ha ha I like this kind of Edo-people humor.
Oh, I love anything sakura, so I would probably buy sakura perfume! I wish I was there to see the cherry blossoms this year!
Posted by: Deb | Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 01:35 PM
I love Cherry Blossom so much. I once mentioned about it in my college essay. ( http://sukolsak.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/ronin/ ) I can't wait to go to Japan to see this real season. (^_^)
I heard the word "Tanuki" for the first time when I was reading Doraemon and there was someone calling him "Tanuki." That made him so angry. I have just seen the real picture of it. Thank you, Mari, for giving information about it.
Posted by: Kie | Friday, March 28, 2008 at 12:44 PM
You certainly have a unique way of writing Mari, i love it ... its a refreshing read!
Posted by: Neil Duckett | Friday, March 28, 2008 at 09:16 AM