My first ever Spring Festival was really cool though! There were literally tens of thousands of people in the very large park! It reminded me of Carnival (Mardis Gras) in Panama but without all the rude people throwing confetti in your face and spraying you with super soakers filled with beer! I remember once in Panama we were outreaching Mardis Gras and I was with a couple of my children and this guy came up to me, I gave him a church flyer but he insisted I was CIA!!! (Because the CIA looks like middle aged women with children passing out church flyers!)
Anyway....back to Spring Festival.... the entrance to the park had this neat sculpture!
One of the first things I saw was some traditional dancing, I wanted to film it and at the 14 second mark I was trying to figure out who the lady was talking to, at the 26 second mark I got my answer! Really made me laugh!
After that I went to the cherry blossom walkway.
My photography skills doesn't do it justice, it was quite beautiful though! (Spring Festival in Ueno park is world famous though so you can probably Google it and see really spectacular photography!)
Then I got to see some of the old architecture from the 1600's!
This is one of just three great stone lanterns in Japan. It's called monster lantern because it's very big, about 18 ft tall!
There were also smaller stone lanterns to light the paths back in the day!
Along these ancient pathways were current generations enjoying festival goodies! I wonder how many generations have done this same thing? I see the ancient and modern blended together like this and I can almost see and hear the ancient samurai and people walking this very path. If I was an artist, I'd paint a picture with people from all generations sharing this same path.
ancient lanterns and picnic tables...
And peeking through the trees behind the lanterns I spy the old five layered pagoda.
I walked a bit more and saw this golden door-ed temple.
It was guarded by this temple dog and 50 copper lanterns. They are considered a national treasure of Japan and were used for religious purposes not for illumination.
And then I came across this plaque.
Next to the plaque was the Ueno Toshogu with the flame from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki burning in it's belly.
My mother told me that when we were stationed here during the Vietnam War, she was told the Sakura song about the cherry blossoms falling came to represent the falling children after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Given how fleeting cherry blossoms are, only staying a few beautiful days before falling to the ground, I can see how the analogy was made.
Here's a few other random pics from my park wandering!
And...
On To Food!!!!
Festival foods!
Dango in different flavors! Tasty rice flour treats!
Fish grilled over hot embers!
Grilled squid, whole or in rings!
Okonomiyaki!!! Cabbage and goodies fried on a large skillet!
Yakitori!
Grilled beef with tasty teriyaki sauce what's not to like?!
Hope you enjoyed my LONG blog on my cherry blossoms walk about! The park is so large that I didn't get to see all of it! It also has a zoo and a lake that I will have to go visit sometime!
That's it for today though!
Tootles!!!
I have always dreamed of going to a blossom Festival!!! And it looks just how I imagined it, (Im sooo living through you)
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