One Week
It feels rare, these days, to have a week of cherry blossoms that is not marred by terrible weather or massive sweeps of yellow sand or natural disasters, but that’s what we were lucky enough to get this year.
Of course, this week also marked the start of the teaching semester for me, so I didn’t get to get out and enjoy the cherry blossoms as much as I might have liked. Fortunately, the campuses I teach at had plenty of blossoms on display, some right outside my classroom window.
Aside from the nice weather and pretty flowers, this week was pretty non-eventful except that I am once again reduced to using my phone as my camera because the battery in my faithful old Lumix is going quick. And because camera makers are still playing by the old “make everything proprietary” rules, replacing the battery on a 14 year old digital camera is neither as simple nor as cheap as it ought to be. First world problems, I know.
Something else happening off-screen right now is that I have been printing photos again. Like a lot of us these days, I have far more digital photos than I could ever hope to display properly. But I decided to make a gallery wall in my office and put up some posters and art pieces I’ve had sitting around, leaning against the walls for years, and, while doing so, came across a bunch of framed photos that used to be on the walls in other places where I used to live.
Now they’re back up on the wall, here in my office and it has been really nice. It has me thinking about what else I want to print and frame. Maybe something from this series? I don’t know. Yet.
Index:
5 April 2025 - Pink - This lovely branch is near my house, attached to the tree in my neighbor’s front yard. I don’t go a single cherry blossom season without thinking of a dozen ways to steal it from him.
6 April 2025 - White - Hachimanyama Park is the go-to destination for hanami parties in Utsunomiya City. On the one hand, it’s great that it hanami parties are one of the things that have yet to return to pre-COVID levels. On the other, it’s kind of sad.
7 April 2025 - More Power - I don’t know what to tell you. I like taking pictures of the power lines. The way they draw diagonals across the sky just fascinates me. Sorry.
8 April 2025 - Plowed - Right in and around cherry blossom season is rice planting season. Fields all across Japan are getting turned over and ready for new rice shoots to be planted. Maybe that will finally bring the price back down.
9 April 2025 - Lunch - As you can see in this photo, the outdoor seating area is already entering its post-hanami phase. Another week and this will have all been cleaned up and prepped for students to come out here on their lunch breaks. Not enough of them will do so.
10 April 2025 - Quad - One thing I like about college campuses in general is that they always have more space than they need. The boards and committees that found new campuses always buy with an eye to expand the facilities and faculties throughout the years. Right now, this campus has this beautiful, empty field that basically goes unused.
11 April 2025 - Classroom View - Like, I don’t even have to turn my chair all the way to see this. I just swivel a bit and then proceed to ignore my class while I stare out the window and daydream the hours away.
