Why I Oughta...

You can see over the rooftops in the photo above a look at Mt. Fuji that I snapped outside the Shinkansen Train (the bullet train!) from Tokyo to Nagoya one night on my trip.  This was the third time I'd taken that trip, but the first time I was able to see the mountain.  Between night time darkness and/or clouds, it wasn't visible to me on the other trips.  Mt. Fuji is a World Heritage Site and one of Japan's 3 "Holy Mountains"  and is home to a pilgrimage that has taken place for centuries .  Those of you keeping note at home, you'll notice that I've used this photo as the header of the blog for now.  On mobile, I think you only see the sky in the top left portion, but on desktop, you get the full mountain.  Around the archives of the blog, you'll find similar photos of t he Rocky Mountains from Denver and from the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs . 

My trip to Japan (with brief stops in Tokyo on either side of a few days down in Nagoya) coincided with the Cherry Blossom Trees being in bloom.  This was the second time I've visited Japan during the Cherry Blossom bloom with the first one being back in 2017.  Here's a post showing the trees then .  I loved the experience so much that I decided to try to find a flowering Cherry Tree to add to our own backyard.  I ended up with this Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree .   The trees this time weren't as full as I think we came a little bit later (late March/early April) this time.   You can kind of see that in the photo above.  It has already bloomed and has lost some of the flowers.  In the photo below, you can clearly see the blooms had mostly fallen off already.   Doesn't mean it wasn't as beautiful.  It was and these photos don't do the trees justice.   This marks the third straight year for Cherry Trees with 2018 being a visit to DC for those alon

View from my room at the Marriott Nagoya .  Not quite a sky bar.  But a nice view.  Saw more from here on this trip than I saw from the ground level. 

Imagine my delight when I walk into the train station in Nagoya to be greeted with this Garrett's (as I call it) popcorn shop.  They sell the Chicago Mix as you'd expect.  And the place was very popular.  I didn't stop in, but I hear that the Matcha flavored corn is a big hit - which wouldn't surprise me based on all the various, weird popcorns I came across at Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea .  There are these big multi-national organizations that one expects to see in international cities.  Think things like McDonalds and KFC.  And heck...even Disney.  But, I kind of considered Garrett's (I know...that's wrong, there is no 's in the name), a Chicago thing.  How wrong am I.  V ery wrong . 

I spent some time last month back in Japan, this time in Nagoya.  This was my second time in Nagoya - the first was a few years ago when I visited for the Cherry Blossoms . Sure, there are plenty of things to see around town, but let's start with the Marriott Associa Hotel.  I stayed on an upper floor and had a room with a twin bed.  But the carpet in the hallway right by the elevators?  Beautiful, isn't it? Reminds me of Spaceship Earth.   Am I nuts?  Or just Disney Drunk? Or maybe the pyramid that the holistic healer placed over George's head?

My trip to Tokyo was timed perfectly - in terms of seeing the famed Cherry Blossom trees in all their glory .  If you have ready anything about them this year, there was concern that they were emerging 'early' - officially - five days earlier than average .  Here in Illinois, we have our little 'blossom season' going on with the widely planted Cleveland Pear tree.  They're the trees that are blooming white flowers like crazy all over the suburbs.  They're a common tree planted in the front of new houses and in parkways and along parking lots.  They grow in a tight area and they are quite show-y during this period of time.   We had a Cleveland Select Pear tree in the front yard our old house and I loved it .  Loved it so much that I bought a few more.  (And we've included one in our plan for the new place.) But, back to these Cherry Blossoms.  We don't live in Seattle or DC - where these things are present.  So, I haven't really experienced '