A Letter from Blue Sky and Sea - Izu Shimoda Photo Diary

2011/02/06 Kawazu Sakura Festival 2011 has started in Izu!

Yesterday we had an opening ceremony of Sakura (Cherry blossom) Festival here in Izu peninsula.

In Japan the most famous Sakura blooms in April, which is called "Someiyoshino".

But Kawazu Sakura is different from them and it blooms for about one month!

Yes, it is very famous for its long blooming and pink color.

This Kawazu Sakura festival is taken place from February 5th to March 10th in Kawazu town and Minami-Izu town every year.

2010/12/07 Izu Seven Islands & Narcissus ( Daffodil ) Festival in Shimoda

Last night we had a lot of thunder at around midnight.

I cut the power of my computer in a hurry, but it was not big deal and there was no problem.

And this morning it still was cloudy here in Shirahama, but I was able to see Izu Seven Islands on the horizon.

It was sunny over those islands, I guess.

By the way, when I went to kindergarten to pick my son up I found out the flowers there.

2010/12/04 Camellia Sasanqua, and Beach in late afternoon

Do you know this blossoms?

The last owner of Pension Sakuraya loved Karaoke, and the 1st song which he learned was "Sazanka no Yado" over 25 years ago. And he used to sing this song when he went to Karaoke after that.

That's why his wife planted this in the garden of Sakuraya. This is called "Camellia Sasanqua", "Sazanka" in Japanese.

This season this tree has a lof ot buds, and all of them started to bloom.

By the way I went to the beach this afternoon....

2010/12/01 A beautiful red flower in Shimoda

Have you ever seen this flower?

This morning I went for waling to the next beach "Sotoura."

When I departed from Sakuraya at 9:00 am it was very warm, so it was very comfortable for walking today.

At the view point of Sotoura I found out the red flowers.

Do you know this?

This is an aloe.

In Shimoda we don't have any snow, so this aloe can have flowers in winter.

2010/01/18 Kawazu Sakura tree has already had a lot of blossoms.

This morning I went to the primary school with my daughter and children for walking.

After we arrived at the school I went to Itado area in Shirahama alone.

When I was walking on the small road in the farmer's field ithe pink tree has appeared suddenly in front of me.

This tree has already had a lot of blossoms and buds.

This tree is called "Kawazu Sakura".

Next month we will have Kawazu Sakura festival around Shimoda.

It means one year would had already passed since last festival.

"Time flies like an arrow."

2010/01/14 Kawazu Sakura will bloom soon.

In Izu peninsula Sakura festival take place from the beginning on February.

This Sakura called "Kawazu Sakura" and this is one of Sakura which bloom early in the year.

We also have some Sakura trees in our field, and I found that one of them has a bud and it is just budding today.

This tree has buds more, so we are looking forward to see a full blooming with a lot of blossome next month. 

<Link> Sakura Festival in Kawazu and Minami Izu town

Cherry Tree has already started bloom in Sakuraya. 2009/04/01

There are some kinds of cherry trees in our garden.

One of them is called "Kawazu Sakura", which blooms in Feburuary, but this tree is "Oshima Sakura".

Oshima Sakura blooms in the same season of the most famous Sakura in Japan, called "Someiyoshino".

I love the season which Sakura start to bloom, because Sakura tree has blossoms and a lot of pink buds, and it is very cute!

Sakura is blooming in Shimoda park! 2009/03/31

When I went to Shimoda I went to Shimoda park to check the blooming of cherry trees.

This year it has been cold in these days, so Sakura trees started to bloom slowly.

But I was able to see some trees have already bloomed in this park.

There are a lot of cherry trees on the river side in Shimoda downtown, but I don't know if I can go there soon because we will be busy this week.

Sakura (cherry) blossom will be start blooming on March 25 in Shimoda in 2009.

As I had to go for shopping I went to the beach after that.

I took this picture at the back of Shirahama shrine in Shirahama Ohama beach.

There is a red gate called "Torii" in Japanese on the rock and we can see Izu Oshima island over there.

Shirahama shrine is located on north side of Shirahama beach, I am showing the another picture taken at the middle of this beach. .....

Pink Carptet of Kawazu Sakura in Shirahama

I went to Shirahama primary school with my son to pick my daughter up after school today.

This is a parking lot near the school.

When I picked my daughter up I found this and took some photos.

There are some Kawazu Sakura trees there.

We had a strong wind today and it made the cherry blossom brawn down on the parking lot.

My children were excited with it and running around this place.

In these days Kawazu Sakura trees have green leaves after blooming..

The best season for Sakura in this region will be finished soom.

Kawazu Sakura has fully bloomed!!! 2009/02/04

Today it was almost cloudy but sometimes we had sunshine.
It was not cold but we had north-east wind, so we didn't feel to go to the beach.

By the way Kawazu Sakura (Cherry blossom) in our garden has fully bloomed at last.

We are very happy looking this tree in spite of cloudy today.

Yes, we love Sakura very much. .......

Sakura is fully blooming. - - Shimoda Ropeway (Cable Car)

Today it was very beutiful day.

When I saw the ocean from our pension I could see Izu Oshima island clearly, so I desided to go to Mt. Nesugata-yama by Cable car with my wife and son.

It's only 3 minutes by calbe car to get to the top from the cable car station near Izukyu Shimoda station.

As I was thinking we could get very beutiful senery from the top of mountain like this picture........

Rain, Cherry blossom (Kawazu Sakura) and White eye

Today it was rainy as yesterday.

When it rainy it frustrated me because I can't go anywhere to take pictures.

Anyway I went out to check out the outside condition and I found two green birds came to the cherry tree next to our building.

Do you know why they came? .......

Sakura is blooming in our garden. - - 2009/01/29

We have some kinds of Sakura in our garden.

But this tree has already had a lot of blossoms.

This Sakura is one of kinds of Kawazu Sakura which is very famous for blooming earlier than Yomeiyoshino.
But I planted its seed several years ago, in another word, this sakura is raised from seed.

So this sakura is a little different from real Kawazu Sakura.

For example......

 

Cherry Blossom in Sakuraya Garden 2009/01/26

In our garden we have some kinds of cherry blossom, and this is one of them, called "Kawazu Sakura".

Every year we have "Kawazu Sakura Festival" in Kawazu town and Minami Izu town on February and March.

However this year this tree has already started to bloom. (I took this picture with my mobile phone. That's why this picture is not good.)

My friends who is a specialist of cherry blossom said,

"This tree is blooming early in this area."

He has a lot of cherry trees in his field but most of them have only 1 or 2 cherry blossoms.

I think this tree will be fully bloomed at the beginning of February.

I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Sakura (Cherry) has already started to bloom - - 2009/01/08

We have some cherry trees in our garden.

This afternoon my son, yuuki said,

"I want to play with my tricycle outside!

He is boring to play alone in his room and he wants to play outside.

"OK, Yuuki. Let's go!"

When we went out and I found Sakura tree has a lot of buds on it, and when I was going to take photos I noticed that this tree has already had some blossoms.

Yes, spring has come to Shirahama!

Cherry blossom festival will take place from February 5th or 7th this year.

   

The flower is still blooming in Shimoda.

In winter we have some kinds of flowers bloom in Shimoda.

This is a narcissus which started to bloom.

From December 20th "Narcissus festival" will take place in Shimoda to January 31st.

Let's get the early spring in Izu peninsula.

<Link> Narcissus Festival in Shimoda

Are the cherry blossoms still blooming over here? - - Mt. Amagi

Last Sunday we went to Mishima for shopping all together.

I think the last time which I went to Mishima with my family was 2 years ago.

This is a picture over looking Shirahama, which I took at Ogasaki Wing, the entrance of Shimoda city.

It was sunny and gorgeous day, but we had strong wind. So we could see the white waves over there.

We started to go again to get to Mishima city......

 

The Babies of Cherry - - Kawazu Sakura

I heard that there are some cherry trees "Kawazu Sakura" which have cherry blossoms in Kawazu town now.
As the blooming was very late this winter they are still blooming.

This is a same kind of cherry tree which is in front of the entrance of Pension Sakuraya.

After blooming this tree already has a lof of cherry now. ....

   

Horsetail and Today's Shirahama Beach

Have you ever seen this?

It's called "Tsukushi" in Japanese (Horsetail in English).
I took this photo in Minami-Izu town yesterday.

We Japanese feel a spring with this horsetail.
Yes, spring has come in Izu peninsula.

I show you today's Shirahama beach .......

Minami Sakura and Rape blossoms Festival 2008 was finished ...

Minami Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) and Nanohana (Rape Blossoms) festival which started on February 5 was finished yesterday, March 10.

As my wife wanted to go to Shimoda for shopping my son and I went together and we went to Minami Izu town to see the flowers.

In Shimogamo there is a big field of rape blossoms and when we got to this field my son started to run into the rape blossoms. ......

 

Snow, Snow, Snow on the beach - - Shirahama

I was surprised very much and couldn't believe it today. We had a lot of snow here in Shirahama after many years!

When my children went to the school at around 7:00 am it was just cloudy, but it started to snow before 9:00 am and we had 3 or 5 cm snow at last.

It is amazing because even if they have snow in Amagi mountains in winter we have no snow here.....

White-eye, Sakura, Izu-Oshima island & Snow

Today when I came back from Shimoda to Sakuraya I found that something is flying around the Sakura tree next to the entrance of Sakuraya building.

Yes, that was "White-eye" (Mejiro in Japanese).

When the Sakura trees have the flowers this bird come to get its honey.

This bird makes us to feel the spring has come!

Yesterday when I went to Minami Izu-cho, Southern area in Izu peninsula I went to
Shimokamo-town where Sakura festival takes place this month, but they hadn't had many cherry blossoms there yet .......

Sakura trees started to bloom!

Today it was a little warm here in Shirahama.

When I was watching the weather forcast on TV they said that it was about 26 degrees in Okinawa.
Wao! It is possible to swim there!!

When I was walking around our pension with my son I found that Sakura tree had some buds.

I was thinking It is a little early to bloom but I found the another tree which had .......

Red cloud and Narcissus in Shirahama

It was very short for my daughter but their winter holidays were finished and classes started today.

When I woke up early in the morning I saw the red cloud in the west.

It was very beautiful!!

And I went to the beach with my son "Yuuki" in the afternoon.....

Sunrise and ships in Shirahama

How do you like this picture?

This morning when I waked up I thought,

"It will be a good condition for the picture today."

As I had to go to the beach to clean up with all of local people I waked up early and went to the beach.

After that I moved to the place behind Shirahama shrine and took this picture.....

Hydrangea Festival in Shimoda

When I went to Shimoda for shopping with my son, I went to "Shimoda Park" to check the blooming of Hydrangea, "Ajisai" in Japanese.

The flowers has just started to bloom, but we could see some flowers there.

They says that there are 3 million flowers of Hydragea in this park, and we can walk in a lot of flowers with a view of Shimoda town and harbor at the peak of blooming season.

sakura Blossoms in Western Izu Peninsula

Today I went to Shuzenji for my job, and came back to Shimoda through Western side of Izu Peninsula.

This is Koganezaki-cape in Ugusu town. It takes 60 minutes by car from Shimoda.

There are a lot of Sakura trees in a small garden and they were blooming 50 or 60% in this stage.

After that, I went to Matsuzaki to see another Sakura blossoms....

The flowers are singing in Shimoda.

It was rainny yesterday and the day before yesterday in Shimoda.

We are very sorry that our guest could not see a beautiful sea and have a good time in Shimoda .

But some of our guests went to Mt. Nesugatayama by the cable car and said,

"We couldn't see seven islands from the top but there were a lot of beautiful flowers there.".....

Rape Blossoms and Bee

The day before yesterday I went to the mountain in Shirahama.

I could see a lot of rape blossoms there and found many bees that came here to get honney.

I was taking pictures very close by the flowers, but they, bees are not interested in me.

So I could take this picture without any danger.

Yes, she is very cute !!

Shimoda Shirahama Beach: Guest House Pension Sakuraya