Spring Flowers

I find it amazing that there seem to be always things flowering in Japan (at least so far).  In the winter, it was the rose bushes, then the ume, followed by sakura, now all sorts of bushes are starting to flower and there are flowers all over the place - very pretty!  We'll start with this nice tulip picture:

I love this picture! It looks like a painting!

Last weekend, I went to Meijo park (by the Nagoya castle) while biking around.  I found that there is a large tulip garden and they were blooming.

 A sea of red:

 There was quite a nice stretch of tulips near the main flower garden building:

 There were also all sorts of flowers planted in the main area by the windmill:

 In the back of the flower building there were more tulips:

 And some other flowers in between:

 Here is a selection:

 Black tulips looks pretty nice:

 Red tulips and small white and yellow flowers:

 Some of the tulips have a crown shape:

 Closeup:

 A lower closeup:

 more closer:

 A lonely flower:

 These tiny black ones were nice too:

Many green bushes throughout the city have new leaves that are red in colour, making them look quite interesting:

 Here is a tree with an interesting shape:

 In the park, just by the water moat that goes around the castle grounds, there were still flowering sakura:

 Closeup:

 small flowers and part of the castle walls:

 Hanging branches:

 In Hisaya-odori, the flowering sakura tree now looks like this:

 There are some nice sakura trees still blooming by OASIS21:

 In Central Park, there were these fish hanging from lines:

 And this beautiful sakura tree:

 Closeup of the flowers:

 This is interesting... it is basically a clock on the ground with flowers inside.  If you watch it closely, you will notice that the red (second) hand is moving.  I assume the others do too :P.

 Another nice sakura in the park:

And finally, I'll leave you with this... maybe a preview of upcoming post since these bushes with these flowers of various colours are all over the campus:

Food Update

Another exciting food update.  The school cafeterias are starting to have some new items since the school term started.  The biggest change in the main (closest) cafeteria that I go to is that there is no more balanced lunch!!  It has been replaced by osusume setto (recommended set).  Hehe, huge change! But there is a new colour scheme associated with it and new display boards so big deal :P.  So, we start with some cafeteria foods.

Some katsu (chicken probably) with fries and cabbage:

 karaage (chicken nuggets) curry:

 A nice set with lots of things put together:

 and another similar one (this flower pattern plates were for the balanced lunch and are no more):

 Some fried fish (the new plates for the osusume setto):

 Tempura salmon:

 Some hamburg (without er denoting no bun, just the putty) with fried fish:

 Sanma (which is a fall fish, so not sure why...):

 Ex-sanma:

 So as you can see... pretty much the same food, but different name and plates:

 Here is some mochi I got at the convenience store on campus:

 And a coffee (not too good tasting) and ice cream sandwich:

 This was awesome - kinda like milk tea but with matcha (i.e., powdered green tea):

Visiting Aratamabasi area one day to look at the sakura, I found a conveyor belt sushi place...

 some fish:

 Tiny octopuses:

 clam:

 Not so tasty small shrimp:

 And a nice roll:

 I ordered this at a Chinese restaurant near campus - it is called horumon in Japanese.  It is basically, intestines/guts - I gotta say, probably not the healthiest food but it was so delicious!

 Had this tsukemen at that shop in Kanayama:

 When I can, I try to sample the local restaurants near my apartment.  I had this tantanmen at a ramen shop in the busy part of Imaike.  It was ok but not as good as the ones from the Chinese restaurants.

 This is what I see from my apartment/balcony:

 It says tonkatsu.  So, I went there to check it out.  As with most Japanese small restaurants, all you see from the outside is a door.  At least this one had a menu on the side (most don't).  So I went in.  The place was actually quite large and the bar was almost full.

 I got this miso katsu set.  It was delicious!  Probably the best miso katsu I had:

 I was sitting in front of these pigs at the bar:

 Today, I also walked around (stupidly for like 40 minutes) trying to find a place to eat at.  Finally, I came back to the street full of restaurants near my place and decided on this one.  It said udon on the board:

 Very small place, only the bar with about 10 seats.  The entire menu was hanging on the wall (quite common in small places here).  And, they only have 3 sets (the 3 below): tonkatsu, karaage, and ebi fry.  It also says that each set comes with a mini udon:

 So I ordered the karaage set (small deep fried chicken nuggets).  It was quite good - have to come back one day to try the other 2 sets :P.  The udon was interesting but tasty.

So.. basically, I've been to about 5 restaurants near my apartment - there are probably around 50 in the area... so still a ways to go.