We have very cold rain here in Shimoda this
morning.
The TV news said that they had first blooming of Sakura in
Fukuoka in Kyushu island, a southern part of Japan yesterday.
There are a
lot of kinds of Sakura in Japan, and the most famous and popular 'Someiyoshino' will start blooming from now.
I took this picture in our garden this
morning.
This kind of Sakura called 'Kawazu Sakura' is now going to
finish blooming, and this tree has already had fresh green leaves.
It was very very warm here in
Shimoda today, and we could see Amagi mountains and Izu Seven Islands
clearly.
When I walked on the top of mountain behind Pension Sakuraya I
found out a lot of small flowers called Greater Henbit ( or Lamium
amplexicaule?).
This flower is one of messengers of Spring!!
It
was very warm again today here in Shimoda.
My wife and I heard the birdsong of bush warbler for the 1st time this season in Shirahama.
It is about a week later than usual, I think.
By the way I took this picture on
Shirahama Beach this afternoon.
There is a small hole on the cliff and
we can see the sea through this hole.
I took this picture on the west side of Izu peninsula this morning.
I wanted to take it clearer, but the air was not to clear.
As the weather forecast said it has been rainy here in Shirahama since this morning.
And also we have strong wind.
But Sakura tree is fully blooming in our garden.
When it rains we usually take children by car to the school.
We had rain before 6:00 AM, but it became sunny after 6:30.
I took this picture after taking my daughter to the shool.
The sun was shining above the ocean and it was very warm after that.
Today I walked around again under
the sunshine, and I took some pictures of Shirahama beach and Shimoda
town from the top of mountain.
This is a small fisherman's port called Itami
in Shirahama.
There are some small boats and the fishermen use them to
fish and to get Iseebi (Japanese spiny lobster) in this season.
And
there is a small beach as well.
We can swim there in summer.
Today it was sunny after 5 days here in Shimoda, but they still have a lot of snow on the top of Amagi mountain.
I hope we have a lot of snow in Shirahama, but it rarely snows in this place.
Amagi mountain in Izu peninsula is covered with a lot of snow now.
But we didn't have any snow here in Shimoda.
Be careful, everybody!