Ohanami on Skates

スケートのお花見

下の物語はお花見の滑ることについてです。 この日本語は短い要約です。今年のお花見はとてもすばらしいかったと思います。いい天気だから、桜の花の時節は長くて、きれいです。そして、たくさん照っているの日だので、皆は楽しめました。７年かん日本に住んだけど、毎年は違いますね。時々他の年のお花見はあまりよくない。風とか雨とか寒い天気からです。今年の上野のＣＲとリンリンのお花見ランの写真を載せました。

Isn't this magnificant?  It was truly a wonderful Cherry Blossom Season in Japan this year, starting early, lasting long, and accompanied by enough sunny weather to enjoy it fully.  Sometimes, the weather... cold, rain and wind can thwart nature's design to provide this glorious hallmark of the onset of spring.  But this year, we had our share of lovely blossoms and even the chance to enjoy them on skates more than once.  You can click on any of these pictures for a larger view.

Ohanami, literally, means flower viewing, the word is お花見、the first letter isn't a kanji but the honorific "O" which is often attached with respect to certain words.  Some other words that can start with this "O" are oshigoto (work), osake, (liquor), and osushi (you know what sushi is).  The second kanji 花、hana, means flower, and 見, means see.  Traditional Ohanami celebrations occur all over Japan at this time as the cherry trees are blooming.  The basic ingredients are something to eat, something to drink, a blooming sakura (cherry) tree to sit under, and someone to enjoy it with.  The skaters do all that, but adding the skates makes it very interesting indeed.  On March 30th, we skated a special route, designed to enjoy several places where many cherry trees are concentrated, such as around Ueno Pond and several points near the Imperial Palace.  After reaching our usual goal of Jingu, the City Run skaters moved to the Aoyama Cemetery, stopping on the way at the convenience store for Obento (lunchbox food) and the all important Osake.  There, under our usual tree, we all enjoyed a very nice Ohanami.  Then, a nice surprise, my best friend, Rebecca, who is not a skater, YET, but knows my friends, just happened to choose that day and that place to enjoy Ohanami with her son, Ellis.  She saw the skates laying around, and assumed correctly, that she'd find me there too.  Here she is with skater, Luis.  And, though I or Martin took all the other pix on this page, I wanted to share this one (of me) from Iwa-san.  I just like it.  Please see Iwa-san's photo documentary of the 2008 Ohanami Ueno City Run HERE. 

So, a wonderful cherry blossom season was thoroughly enjoyed in Tokyo, and, besides our Ohanami City Run, Martin and I often walked out with Toby to our neighborhood sakura trees which are lit at night and very popular with the crowds, and we even took Toby on the train to Ueno Park one evening, and found it crowded with happy merrymakers celebrating under the blooms.  Because it's a little colder further north, and the cherry trees bloom about a week later in Ibaraki Prefecture, we had a chance for a second helping of Ohanami on Skates.  That would be the Rin Rin Ohanami Run.  As I've mentioned here before, the Rin Rin Road was once a railway, so it is flat and mainly straight and traverses the landscape for 40 kilometers, (about 25 miles).  Yes, it was on the Rin Rin that I broke my shoulder several years ago when I first started skating, and I've skated it several times since, spring and fall.  Martin skated the Rin Rin last spring for the first time, and this year I was able to convince Jonah to go.  However, for several reasons, we decided to only do the first half of the trail, just 20 km. There's a bus station at that point, so bus to train to home took about two hours. 

Several features make the Rin Rin Road perfect for an Ohanami Skate.  You can take a train out of Tokyo to Iwase, where we met our group eventually totalling 27 people, walk a short distance from the train station, and pick up the trail.  From there, you skate 40 km, and end at Tsuchiura, where you can take the train back to Tokyo.  Back when the Rin Rin was a railway, of course there were train stations and platforms.  Now that the tracks have been pulled up and the trail paved, all that remains of the train stations are the laid stone walls, and in some cases, the paved platforms, and in every case, glorious very old, large, established cherry trees.  It is on one such platform that we enjoyed our lunch under a tree that had been planted in the 1920's.  It was just delightful.  This road is also used for bicycles and running.  The scenery is lovely, with open spaces running through very green agricultural area irrigated in the same way as rice paddies, many places were flowers and young trees have been planted along side, interesting villages, and the looming Tsukuba mountain up ahead.

  Please see our pictures on SMUGMUG of the 2008 Rin Rin Ohanami Run. I do want to mention, though I'm embarrassed to admit it, that while Martin and Jonah and I only did a half Rin Rin this time, several members of our group did a "Double"!  Yes, that's 80 kilometers!!  They started around 8am at Tsuchiura and skated 40 km, met us, then doubled back and skated 40 more, while we got off at the half way point.  Here's my hero, Yumi-san, the organizer of the event, and one of the Double Doers.  She may be a bit tired, but always has that lovely smile, no matter what. 

 

Comments

[はっしー]

I'm sorry that the comment and writing slow.
Thank you for your kindness in "りんりんロード Long run".
It was very happy to talk with you.
Please come to CR in Yokohama by all means.