sakura near my house 2

Sakura near my house

sakura buds 3

Sakura buds 2

Sakura latte

Spring has finaly come to my place!

This spring is so cold. It even snowed a little two days ago, so I didn't expected that cherry blossoms to start to bloom. Whenever I drove through a tiny park near my house, I watched the cherry trees there.Yah! The cherry blossoms started to bloom! I don't know why , but Sakura, or cherry blossoms make me smile.

Sakura flavored steamed bun

At this time of the year we can get many kinds of Sakura, or cherry blossom flavored foods and items in Japan. The spring is not coming soon in Hokkaido, though.

Double petaled cherry blossoms

Our cherry blossoms are late- blooming ones. The top parts were died during the winter, but a few twigs are still alive. We didn't have much rain a few weeks ago, and everything looked like withered. Now,everything looks glittering due to the rain drops. I wonder when most cherry blossoms bloom in the US? Ummmm, it is the large country, so it depedns on places. Am I right?

Sakura in a small park

The other day, we had lots of snow, and we had to shovel the wetty heavy snow. A few days later, it suddenly got warmer. This morning, I saw some cherry blossom starting blooming in a small park near our
house.

Sakura saku(to bloom cherry blossoms)

Schoolers have to take entrans examinations at this time of the year. If they pass the exams, we say "Sakura saku", which literally means to bloom cherry blossoms. If not, "sakura chiru, which means to fall cherry bloosoms . (Sorry, this picture is not new. I took this last year. This is Sakura tea. It smelles good.) Recently, I heve seen many sakura printed grocery items. If I buy some, I will show you.

Sakura flavoured steamed buns(Sakura Manjyu)

I bought some sweet white bean paste which contains salt pickled cherry leaves from an on-line shop, and my mother made some Japanese steamed buns called"Manjyu". Since the sweet bean paste smelled like cherry leaves , they were good!