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<<01>> All aboard the hanami train! <<02>> View of Kyobashi’s Osaka Business Park behind Osakajō-park’s colourful flora. <<03>> A closer view of the striking 37-floor (157m) Crystal Tower, one of Osaka’s better skyscrapers. <<04>> Petals in the castle moat. <<05>> A view of Osaka from the other side of the park, as daylight starts to fade. <<06>> Reflection of bare cherry trees in a blossom-lined puddle. <<07 - Main Photo>> A beautiful sakura sunset to end a pleasant day of blossom viewing (and of course beer drinking) in Osakajō-park.

Click on photos to see enlarged versions. Captions are below.

<<01>> Arguably Japan’s most famous cherry blossom tree, in Maruyama park. It’s a type of shidare-zakura (weeping cherry tree), which receives the kind of photo attention usually reserved for Hollywood celebrities at film premieres.
<<02>> Well aware of the hordes of tourists who descend on Kyoto during this season, famous Buddhist temples and gardens in the city are keen to exploit the commercial potential with raito-appu (‘light up’ = illuminations). Eager to get on in the act, Nijō castle plastered the city with these posters featuring enticing - and slightly misleading - composite photography. As with other places of historical interest, the Japanese tradition of viewing yozakura (nighttime cherry blossoms) can be enjoyed for a ‘small fee’. (more…)

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<<01>> If sakura (cherry blossoms) herald full-on orgiastic appreciation of seasonal change, ume (plum blossoms) are the foreplay that gently warms the Japanese up. Blossoming a few weeks earlier than sakura, ume mark a slight increase in temperature and seasonal excitement, in anticipation of the main event. Here is one of Kyoto’s most famous plum blossom viewing spots, the ume garden at Kitano Tenman-gū shrine. (more…)

Here are the photos from the Photo of the Month series, in case you missed any of them. Other photos that’ve been getting a lot of hits this year include samurai Colonel Sanders, the claw machine with live lobster prizes, the ‘ultra big’ condoms, the vomit bar, Tsuruhashi (Osaka’s Korea Town) and Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (my favourite skyscraper). Just click on the thumbnails below to check out the original photos.

My friend Geoff Ries sent me these photos of a Christmas tree he made with Heartland beer bottles. A good way to recycle beer bottles and a good way to celebrate the festive season! 10 out of 10 for creativity.

Anyone who was living in Japan in 2006/2007 will no doubt be familiar with the tarako commercials, which I wrote about in this article. The Kyūpii advertising campaign was one of the most memorable in recent years, and the tarako craze is still going strong. Here’s an inflatable tarako I found in Kyōbashi shōtengai.

Nipponbashi Street Scene

One of the major streets in Osaka’s Den Den Town, an area with loads of electronic stores and similar in atmosphere (though smaller in scale) to Tokyo’s Akihabara. Like that area, Nipponbashi is also famous for its maid cafes.

Smash and Grab

A broken maneki neko display at a Shinsaibashi restaurant.

Sake Ippai

A lot of sake, in the kind of barrels often seen in Shinto shrines.

Daigo-ji Pillar

A pillar at Daigo-ji Temple where people carve their names into the paintwork and adorn it with stickers for good luck.