Adventures of Anette: Hanami

Showing posts with label Hanami. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Hiking in Tokyo: Sakura viewing (花見) at Mount Takao (高尾山)

Anette 11:23:00 AM

Passing by cherry blossoms on the way up to a shrine in Takaosan
Photo: Anette

For people who want to get out of Tokyo to experience both Japanese nature and culture at once, there is one exceptional place where you can find what you are looking for: The sacred Mount Takao (Takaosan in Japanese).

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Seoul

Cherry Blossom Season & Spring at KyungHee's Seoul Campus

Anette 9:44:00 PM

It seems that spring finally has reached Seoul, and the sakura has started blooming all over Seoul. The Kyunghee Campus in Seoul must be one of the best places for pretty pictures of sakura, as the campus is full of them. Yesterday I took the trip to Seoul with some of my friends from GIP, and we stopped by Kyunghee and also the amusement park Lotte World to enjoy the nice weather take pictures.

KyungHee: Towards Global Eminence

The KyungHee campus in Seoul is probably one of the most beautiful places in Seoul with its old European architecture that looks like it has been taken out of the Harry Potter universe or something. I have been here a couple of times already, but seeing all the blooming sakura (cherry blossom) makes the whole place even more amazing than usual! I went there with my friend Tanya who really loves to take photos, and so we spent quite a lot of time just walking around taking pictures.

Did you know that it is possible to go up to the roof of one of the buildings to the left of the main building? I don't remember the name of the building, but considering all the people who goes there it shouldn't be hard to find. You just take the elevator to the sixth floor (unless you prefer to walk of course), and from there you take the first turn to the left where there is a staircase going up to the roof. From this place you have a perfect view of the campus, which you can see in a couple of the pictures below.

Overview of Kyunghee's main campus with the beautiful sakura in full bloom

Tanya's best shot of the day. I really like this picture^^

Just enjoying the beautiful flowers!

The main campus has really beautiful architecture, which you can see in the background.

The main building.. So popular.. Haha..

너무 예쁘다~^^

Kyunghee campus + sakura = 最高.

On the roof

After having roamed around campus for a couple of hours we went south to Jamshil where there also were supposed to be some good spots for sakura.
The area around Lotte World is especially a nice spot for pictures, but the amusement park seemed rather small and perhaps more suitable for families with kids. Not that I can say for certain, as four of us decided to go back to the GIP instead of checking out the park..

A temple-style building inside Lotte World

Group picture!

Other blogposts:
South Korea
Seoul
Kyung Hee University

Hotels in South Korea

Hotels in Seoul

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Sakura

Sakura Season in Kansai - Hanami in the Expo ’70 Commemorative Park!

Anette 11:30:00 AM

This is the season when Japan's beloved cherry threes are in bloom, and people gather in parks and other public places to do hanami, or "flower watching" with friends and family. The second Hanami-event I went to this year was arranged by my friend Masaki from the graduate school, and I went there together with some of my good friends to spend a nice day in the Expo '70 Commemorative Park (Also known as Banpaku-Kinen Kouen: 万博記念公園) which is situated close to Osaka.

This park was the place of a World's Fair back in 1970, with the theme "Progress and Harmony for Mankind". At this fair they displayed technical objects such as mobile phones and the world's first IMAX-film, but one of the biggest attractions was a display of a moon rock brought back from the moon in 1969 by astronauts of Apollo 12.

One of the main attractions of the Expo '70 Commemorative Park: The Tower of the Sun (太陽の塔)

One of the biggest attraction in the park today, is the Tower of the Sun. This statue is the first thing you'll see when you approach the park, and it can also be seen if you the blue line by train to/from Kansai Airport (KIX). I have actually passed by the statue quite a number of time, wondering what the statue was supposed to be.. So it was kind of funny that I ended up in that park for this Hanami.. :)
Anyway, the statue was also designed for Expo 70', and it has become a symbol of the 1970 World's Fair.
The park itself is really huge, and it is divided into different sections as well. We mostly stuck to one part of the park where we pulled out our big, blue mat, along with snack and drinks.

Gathered in the Expo '70 Commemorative Park for hanami!

We were by not the only people here this day..

There was also an area where they sold Japanese pottery!

We did however walk a little bit around in the park, and found one area where they were selling all sorts of pottery. Some of it was in really traditional style, and I just had to take some photos here too, of course^^

Japanese pottery dolls!

A wide range of traditional style Japanese pottery

But this is what we came for: The Sakura!

I guess if I had a lot more money and not to mention space to put things there is a chance I would have bought quite a lot of pottery this day. But I resisted it for this time..
The day in the park was really great, meeting both new and old friends and relaxing in the sun was a perfect way to spend the day! I took a lot of pictures, and here I have included some of them:

集合写真！

Entertainment in the park

Sunset and sakura!

In the evening they have light-ups in the park

..and they sell delicious Japanese food too

More pictures of food stands and sakura

The Tower of the Sun seen from behind, along with the sakura flowers

A light-up of the sakura, in different shades of pink and purple.

We stayed in the park until the sun went down, and we could see the park turning in to a light-show with the sakura as the main attraction. After having taken another bunch of photos it was time to return to Kyoto again for this time.. But the sakura season is still not over, so I will be back with some more sakura-related posts in the near future as well..! じゃ、またね！

Thursday, April 12, 2012

SKP

Spring in Japan: Sakura Season and Hanami in Kyoto!

Anette 8:04:00 AM

One quite particular thing about the Japanese culture, is how they like things that are pretty, but at the same time things that are fragile or fugitive, or in other ways imperfect. Perhaps that is why they like the sakura 桜 (cherry blossom) so much.. Every year the trees brings new and beautiful flowers, but the flowers only lasts for a couple of weeks, until their petals falls to the ground. If there is a heavy rain the long-awaited hanami might even get washed away along with the flowers. The sakura is a sign of spring, and Japanese people (as well as us foreigners) likes to gather in parks/shrines/etc to drink with friends and watch the pretty flowers. This event is called hanami, and it literarily means to "look at flowers" (花見). Like last year I have already been to a couple of hanami-events, and the pictures in this blog is from the hanami I went to with the Study in Kyoto Program (SKP)-students in the Maruyama-park (円山公園) behind Yasaka Jinja.

Compared to last year the sakura flowers bloomed really late, so I didn't get that many good shots this time. Anyway, thanks for reading my post, I'll be back with more soon;)

Sakura over a gate in Gion

One of the traditional streets in Gion

During hanami there are a lot of stalls where one can by small portions of different types of Japanese food, such as takoyaki, okonomiyaki, etc etc. Here is the stalls + the sakura

Nanzen-ji 南禅寺

Students ready for hanami

A group picture with some of my fellow students

Another 集合写真 with more or less all the hanami participants

The Yasaka-jinja exit

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Osaka

All blogposts from Kyoto

All blogposts about hotels

All blogposts from Japan

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave me a comment or question below!
~Anette

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Sakura

Spring in Kyoto: Ritsumeikan University Orientation Week and Cherry Blossom Hanami!

Anette 8:34:00 PM

After having backpacked around Asia for about a month during spring break it was time for a new semester in Kyoto!

April is the month when the Japanese school year commence, and to celebrate the new semester Ritsumeikan has an annually opening ceremony where all the freshman participate. In addition some also bring their friends and family members, and then of course it is us exchange students as well.

The opening ceremony was held in the Osaka Dome, which is manly used as a baseball stadium.

At the entrance ceremony

New Ritsumeikan students..!

Most of the ceremony consisted of speeches from Ritsumeikan's many leaders and representatives. I can imagine that it must have been quite boring for those of us who didn't understand Japanese, since nothing of it was in English, of course. But still, I think the best about the ceremony was just to experience sitting in such a great, big hall with the lights and all the people, and that is not depending on your Japanese knowledges anyway, so..
In the second part of the ceremony it was time for some entertainment, and then mainly from some of the many circles (or activity clubs) at school showing of their talents and their clubs.

And this was really the week for circles at school. Spring had come to Kyoto, and along with the new students came a lot of small stands all over campus where the different activity clubs tried to recruit new members.

One of the arenas where the clubs tried to get new members was through performances at a stage that had been put up for the occasion in the middle of the campus.

Alex getting some information about one of the activity groups at school.

The Sakura season was about to start too, and the blooming trees at campus made the Kinugasa campus look really nice.

The different activity clubs got the chance to show off their technics and skills.

Some cosplay - girls hanging around

At the end of the first week it was time for a Ritsumeikan welcome dinner, and after that for some Hanami! Hanami is a really popular event around springtime in Japan when the Sakura is in bloom. Hanami is written with the kanji (chinese sign) for flower, 花, and the sign for to see/look at, 見, and as you might have guessed it literary means to look at flowers.

Some friends gathered for Hanami at the shrine Hira no jinja (平野神社) not that far from school.

The cherry blossoms (Sakura) lighted up in the evening.

Other SKP students gathered for hanami.

And in the upcoming days there were more chances for viewing the beautiful flowers coming up.
In the weekend me and my boyfriend Yuma went back to the Hira no Jinja shrine to take a look at the sakura again, and in addition to the flowers we got some nice entertainment as well.

Sakura-parade!

In the parade we could see people dressed up in clothing representing different areas and time periods in Japan.

Yuma and I (I'm wearing high heels for once, so I look sooo tall haha..)

People sitting under the tree to drink with friends and watch the flowers.

Sakura again. And not to mention the crowds..!!

The cherry blossoms only lasts for a short period, so it is important to get to see as much as possible while it is still there. To get some more pictures of the flowers I went out with my camera again, and this time it was me and Ericka who went to Arashiyama in the western part of Kyoto to do some exercise and to take some pictures at the same time.

桜

Sunset and sakura

And some sakura close up!

Arashiyama

Cherry blossoms and ducks

There's just something really Japanese with this type of scenery, and it is so pretty as well:)

Unfortunately I guess it won't be too long till the flowers are gone, since they only lasts for a couple of weeks. Better enjoy it while one can;) See you guys later!