Cherry Blossoms by Night

I love cherry blossom season. At the first sign of blossoms, every one is happy, smiling and ten times more friendly than normal. Just like the trees, the people of Japan are waking up from a long winter nap. 

Seeing this every day as I make my way to the station (eki) can't help but put a smile on my face. 

The cherry blossom has great meaning to the Japanese people, beyond a symbol of springtime. It symbolizes a time of renewal and also of fleeting brevity of life. The blossom lasts only about two weeks. One swift storm and they are like falling snow from their trees. 

Meguro River is just a hop, skip and a jump from our house. We were told to come down at night as they light all the cherry trees up. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, because it was PACKED! We are used to it by now, so just made our way through the crowd enjoying the sites and the street food. 

Matsumoto Castle

Matsumoto Castle is roughly a 3 hour drive from Tokyo.  It is the oldest five (well six but more on that later) story tenshu (keep) in Japan. 23 generations of six families called this keep home. Most of the keep was built by father and son, Kazumasa and Yasunaga Ishikawa, starting in 1590. They built up the town as well, adding to the infrastructure, and gathered warriors to protect it. There were some pretty cool things inside the castle, like trap doors for dumping rocks on attacking enemies, hidden floor (hence six floors not five) for warriors to stay during wartime.

 There were a pair of Shachi from the main keep displayed inside. You can see others on the roof of the keep. Shachi are mythical sea creatures that have the face of a tiger or dragon and the body of a fish, and are put on roof tops as protective charms against fire. They were believed to spout out a stream of water to protect the building. Shachi always come in male-female pairs; the open mouth male is 127 cm high and the closed mouth female is 124 cm high. I found this incredibly ironic because let's face it when are men mouthed open and women closed?!? LOL.

You can't go to a keep without meeting a friendly ninja willing to pose for a picture. He told us aobut the Kurozaemon Akutagawa a ninja working under the Toda clan. (Matsumoto clan during 1617-1633). Apparently the family heads of Akutagawa have called themselves Kurozaemon for generations. The fourth of which was well known for his amazing skills in ninja art, and magic tricks.

This is a great place to pick up some Temari Handballs, also known as princess balls. They are beautiful, patterned, handcrafted balls made of colorful silk. They originated from this area 200 years ago. Initially they were a popular toy for girls, but later became a symbol for harmony and also a good luck charm.