Temperatures in the Nagano area broke into the 20s (Celsius) yesterday, and suddenly it feels like winter is really gone. Today felt more like what I’d think of as a Seattle summer day. The flowering trees are blooming, and the cherry trees should be in full bloom this weekend, perfect timing for the parties that will crowd beneath the trees in parks throughout the city.
Plum and apricot trees bloom earlier than the cherry trees, and this morning I went with a friend to see apricot orchards the small town of Mori, south of Nagano.
The photo above is the idealized version of this season — all flowers, beauty and nature. Unfortunately, beauty and nature in Japan are usually accompanied by hordes of sightseers, tour buses, traffic jams, parking lots with uniformed attendants, old men with big cameras, souvenir shops, food vendors, and a healthy dose of concrete.
Since my friend and I arrived early in the day, we missed the big crowds. Less than a hundred other people were milling around, taking in the view and buying plenty of dried apricots and apricot-flavored ice cream.
The three photos below show the less picturesque side of the outing: the parking attendant giving my friend, Kinuko, an area map; one of the parking lots with the Japanese equivalent of a double-wide trailer serving as a souvenir/ice cream shop; a red and white stripped blossom-viewing platform.
