no rain, no rainbows...and so the blossoms begin to fall

the rain waited for the end of a beautiful cherry blossom filled weekend of festivals and sunshine. i choose Banpaku Kinen Koen (Expo Park) for ohanami and jazz music at the first annual Expo Jazz Festival for both saturday and sunday as did thousands and thousands of cherry blossom viewing, obento eating, photo-taking, badminton playing, catch-ball playing, beer/sake drinking, picnic-ing people here in Osaka. i think there were a few hundred of us actually sitting in the sectioned-off area for the jazz festival while the other thousands and thousands of people sat under or played by or nearby the cherry blossoms in full bloom (mankai). you will have to wait a little longer for the photos to appear in this blog and in my mac.gallery homepage...there will be many beautiful photos of the cherry blossoms as well as a glimpse or two of how ohanami (cherry blossom viewing) is done here in Japan. more about jazz festival when i can. one highlights from saturday was the first group ("top batter) was a trio from Tokyo called The Will consisting of a pianist, upright bassist and...a violinst (think more like Jean-Luc Ponty). they apologized for not being more jazz-y but said the next groups would be. their second song was a very cool rendition of Jimi Hendrick`s "Purple Haze". one of sunday`s highlights was a very Japanese-y version of George Harrison`s "Here Comes the Sun" which started with a shakuhachi solo (tradition wooden flute) and sung by a jazz singer from Sapporo, Hokkaido who was wearing a flowing white gown, red scarf and no shoes.

it is monday morning here..not sunday as the date of the post shows. i am watching the end of the Tampa Bay Rays/New York Yankees baseball game on tv downstairs while Noriko`s Father sits beside me and sings his favorite songs from...the 1940`s. Noriko has left to run a few errands. her Father and i will have an obento lunch that Noriko prepared before leaving. after breakfast, i walked to the 100 yen shop for a for a few more cassettes to tape today`s Flower Afternoon radio show on FM802. i walked to Bonoshima Koen which is a little park on the way to the 100 yen shop as i wanted to see if the cherry blossoms petals had begun to fall from the trees with this morning`s wind and approaching rain...and i forgot to take an umbrella and got caught in a light rain. it actually felt good but i think my cameras do not like the rain. walking in between the raindrops, i was able to take a few good photos. and yes, the cherry blossom petals have begun to fall.

more later. time for obento (kind of like a "boxed lunch" but...cuter).