First Sakura Appears

Just wanted to let you know that a few days ago I spotted the first sakura tree blooming on campus.

   It is a white flower.

 The difference between sakura blossoms and ume blossoms is that ume petals are round and sakura ones have a crease in them (like the top of a heart).  Upon closer inspection, this is definitely sakura:

 A cat came to sit under the tree.  The tree was smelling quite nicely.  Cats look the same in Japan :P.

 There are a few sakura trees on campus I hear so this is just the first viewing - more to come!

Weekend Bike Ride (Yamazakigawa) - March 12

On March 12, I went for a bike ride to checkout a river (Yamazakigawa - 山崎川) that is supposed to be a nice sakura viewing spot.  This was a day after the large earthquake so I was a bit worried about the tsunami but the river looked pretty ok.  Here is the map (interactive form):

The trip started near lunch time and I was hungry so for the first time, I went to BENTOMAN which is a chain of bento making take out restaurants.  I saw it a few times biking by it - it is a few streets from my apartment.  I selected something totally random from the menu and then waiting a few minutes while they were making it.  While I waited, one guy picked up about 20 bentos!

  I took the box and biked a little bit until I found a nice park with a large fountain:

 So I parked my bike and sat on this bench and ate my lunch:

  Which turned out to be this (plus a box of rice about half of the size of this box).   The fried things turned out to be clams but they were tasty:

The start of the river wasn't very far away (start since before it goes underground) and on the way I found a nice temple with a torii and a nice island:

 The river was tiny but in a huge and deep canal:

 So no worries about tsunami.

 This type of canal continued for a while...

 After which it became a bit bigger and more of a river:

I finally started to notice the trees (which are supposed to be sakura) all along the canal:

 Of course none of them had flowers yet (maybe in 2 weeks):

 Some of the trees were quite old:

Whenever there was deeper water in the river, there were large carp (koi):

 A nice ume tree in front of a house:

 Found a large deeper part of the river with lots of the fish:

 And turtles:

 There was an observation kinda of area above with a bench so I think people feed them.

 I think the water in the river must change from time to time (maybe even due to tides):

 Turtles sun bathing:

 A closeup:

 All along the river are sakura trees - will look awesome when they bloom:

 and the other side:

 At some point was a nice path along the river with sakura trees above:

 Lots of trees (supposed to be around 700):

 Found a golden koi in the river:

 Map showing the river and recreational park:

 By the park was this sign on a rock:

 Finally made it all the way to Aratamabashi - seen here:

 The river did increase in size around that area:

 I found a large AEON mall near the river so I went in.

 After a bunch of walking around in the mall, I bought a tasty bean paste on mochi:

 I didn't go any further along the river and went back towards home following a large highway:

 This is how highways merge:

 At one street, from the distance, I noticed large white flowers on a tree so I went closer to investigate:

 Turned out to be Magnolia flowering:

Then, I went home, biking around 22km in total.  On the way home, I stopped at a supermarket and bought some fish for dinner.  I didn't know what kind of fish it was but it was a bit cheap and looked good:

 I also bought some cabbage, leak, mushrooms and onions:

 Plus, some miso paste in which I marinated the fish for a bit.  Then I fried it. Also fried the veggies:

The fish turned out to be quite tasty just like tuna.  It was Opah (or red moonfish) which is a huge flat looking fish in the pacific.

Weekend Bike Ride - March 6

On March 6th, I went biking around the city.  No real reason, just wanted to bike for a while.  I did a nice loop like this (detailed map here).

Well, that is part of the map missing the first bit but you can extrapolate.  Initially, I biked through Meijo park (near the Nagoya castle) to see if anything changed with the ume blossoms.  Here is the moat around the castle and the large fortification walls:

 Big walls and moat.

 Here is a view of the castle with it's gold dolphins:

 An empty guard building on the wall corner:

 Here is a nice lake in Meijo park with nice fountains:

 The ume trees didn't change much and I didn't notice any new ones flowering:

Then I kept riding south.  Here are some views along the way:

 I biked along a main Nagoya highway that is on street level:

 A nice looking temple:

 Big intersection:

 Here is a large intersection with the road that goes to Nagoya Train Station (building seen in the distance):

 The other side of that (pictures were taken from a pedestrian/bicycle overpass - I love those for pics):

 And view south from the same place:

 Went through a nice park which turned out to be the one near Sakae that I often go by but from a different angle/street.  I found a nice fountain and walkway from this way:

 Also, found a very skinny rabbit - where is this from?

 The science museum.  I need to go to that new planetarium (the ball) - it is supposed to be the largest in the world or something.  In front you can see a whole building torn down which is quite common sight in Japan.  Basically, old buildings get torn down completely and new ones built - might have something to do with the earthquakes.

 Just slightly south of the park was OSU.  Here is the large OSU kanon temple.  While at OSU, I ate that sakura fish pastry from the food blog.

 Not sure what this is... but nice aquarium fish on the building:

 As you can see it was already getting dark.  This is the main street into Kanayama.  Very interesting since it doesn't look very busy from this picture but only about 100m and it is crazy busy part of town.

 Went by the conveyor belt sushi place I ate at a few weeks ago where we waited like over 1hr for a seat.  This time there was also a huge line up so I didn't go in.

 Further south, I went by the huge Atsuta shrine (from my new year blog post):

 A little bit past the shrine, I came upon one the start of the large canals that go to the bay and the ocean.  People have boats parked along the canal.

 I didn't go any further south but that would be this way:

 Basically, from there, I tried to go east but that was a bit complicated due to the roads crossing railroad tracks and the sidewalks stopped.  But the good thing is that I found a huge Book Off store (used books):

 And an awesome sushi place where I waited about 45mins for a seat but I was hungry and it was getting late.  Sushi was great (already covered in the last food blog post).

 Then I somehow managed to take a different route and was able to go east until the Aratamabashi subway station and then I headed straight north along another large road.

 Which basically went all the way to Imaike and home.

Nice ride at about 30km total that day.