I often get tired during international trips. The time changes, though I like to think myself a good adjuster really throw me for a loop at times! I am often back in my room before dark, and often get shots out the windows, especially if I am high atop the city with a fantastic view. This is one such nite in Tokyo, Japan.
I have posted view’s of the guard towers of the Imperial Palace before, but this one is a view that really melds the old and new Tokyo in a fun way. All around the city are evidence of ancient times integrated with some great modern designs.
I have been to Meiji Jingū every time I have visited Tokyo. There is a peacefulness to the place that I love taking in, its also suffused with Japanese spiritual practice. Shinto is fascinating to me, and I love to watch all the comings and goings…especially the marriage ceremonies. This is one of the outer torii gates on the east side of the expansive park the Shrine is built on.
Magic is probably the wrong word to use. I feel like Sakura is must more of an Eastern philosophical festival than my Western mind completely grasps. There is so much beauty in the blossoms of the cherry trees. The burst forth to the enjoyment of all and fill the previously cold world wrapped in winter with color and life and the most glorious fragrance. Their time here is so short, only about 10 days, then the blossoms fall (die?). When this happens, a cool breeze come through and the petals of these one beautiful flowers rain down to the ground. I can most compare it to snow, but at the same time, nothing like snow. In that moment, for me at least, is perhaps their most beautiful expression. They leave the world in a gracefully chaotic fall that I can only call magical.
Tokyo isn’t exactly a place for quiet. It’s hustle and bustle non-stop and packet to the gills with people. This is almost doubly so during Sakura! I have found though, even in the most densely populated places you can find moments of zen.
Believe it or not, Spring is not far around the corner! Personally I can’t wait for winter to be over, but this realization got me thinking about Sakura. I am not traveling quite as much as in years past. Part of me is really sad about this, but it also makes me thing about the Buddhist meaning of this time in Japan. The cherry blossoms live only for around 10 days and they are a reminder of impermanence. Nothing can last forever, but despite inevitable mortality, spring will come again.
I found this flowering bush (or maybe tree) while viewing Sakura. The closer brighter blossom was nearly perfect, it too made me thing while circumambulating the Shinobazu Pond that while the Sakura gets all the attention, there is beauty all around.
Hiking up the mountain at Fushimi Inari-taisha brings to you a near endless expanse of torii gates. This view is more simple, but still expresses the vast infinity you feel hiking through the mountains. This is early on and the deeper into the mountains you get the more the gates begin to thin out. The more too does nature take over and you less and less see other hikers. This is one of my favorite places in Japan, but please go early and be prepared to hike a long way to find some peace this wonderful place has to offer visitors.
I have come to realize something about myself in this life. I deeply appreciate and love gardens. I love nature in general, and find a peaceful place where I can still my mind as I wander the natural world. I also realized I deeply dislike the actual art of gardening (and I strongly believe this is an art form). This is something I gave year after year of effort too when Pamela and I purchased our home, but the older I become, the more I realize you need to spend more time doing the things you love, and less time doing the things you do not love. That seems like common sense, but for so many of us, such a difficult thing to master. I know I was deeply moved by the gardens at Tenryu-ji, but raking this zen garden is not the same as communing with it.
I sat on a small bench, the rain that had been falling my entire trip out of Kyoto to Tenryu-ji had mostly stopped, but a humid sheen cast odd colored light glares all over. I sat taking in the Kyoto fall scene. I was a bit too early for the truest expression of color the city is capable of, but the beauty of Tenryu-ji’s gardens were not lost. Suddenly and in near slow motion, this near perfect maple leaf fell from a nearby tree. It floated gracefully to rest next to me on my wet bench. I took this as a sign and snapped this photo. I often try to find meaning in the small occurrences like this that happen on my travels, but perhaps this time, I will leave this leaf’s message for you to decipher.
I get why the Japanese have a word specifically for cherry blossoms and another for the viewing of these wonderful flowers. My visit to Japan this last April was toward the end of the blossoming season, just at the start of the fall. There is an otherworldly beauty, not unlike snow, but different all the same, as the still cool breeze blows and petals fall, gently invade all your senses. I think for me Hanami is a perfect explosion of color after the desolateness of Winter. Wrapped, surviving in the cold, then one day the beautiful promise of Spring.
