Spring is a comfortable season with bright and calm sunlight, although in Japan it has recently been known as the season of pollen allergy. Scenes in spring photographed at various places are displayed on this page.

* Click a photo to enlarge.

Bank along Temmagawa river

As shown on the "Wind speed 60.2 m/s" page, Temmagawa river in front of our house was about to overflow in the storm of October 2004. After that, in the winter time, the height of the bank was made higher.

At the beginning of this April, the construction of the bank and promenade was completed. The step down to the river in the center of the above photo indicates how much higher the bank was constructed, comparing it with the photos before the construction, below (left: flood tide, right: ebb tide. Please refer "River in Hiroshima — ebb and flow, floating lantern ceremony on A-bomb memorial day" page).

The ceremony for the completion of the construction was held on Apr. 28, and an interesting statue, as shown in the above photo, was placed. It looks somewhat weird from the opposite side of the road at night. The statue looks like being seated on a bench, and sometimes a real human being is seated next to the statue.

Since some other benches are placed on the promenade and illuminated in the night time, there is always someone walking about or seated on the benches, and it looks quite peaceful.

Cherry blossoms in Paris

It became very warm in Hiroshima on Apr. 9, and the cherry blossoms opened into full bloom.

There were a lot of people enjoying the cherry blossoms along the Motoyasu-gawa river in the Peace Memorial Park. This is the front side of the river in the photo of the floating lantern ceremony on A-bomb memorial day (Aug. 2004), shown below.

The cherry blossoms in a park near our house opened into full bloom.

A close-up photo of the cherry blossoms.

 

In this park, there is a cherry tree clipped from a "Hiroshima Ebayama Sakura," which is a very rare species of cherry tree found only on theEbayama hill near the coast of Hiroshima city. The photo on the right is the explanation plate, meaning "Hiroshima Ebayama Sakura — A kind of mountain cherry tree found in Hiroshima Ebayama Park in 1994, and given this name since this species was not found in any literature and a very rare species where no similar trees are found in Japan. White-pink flowers bloom horizontally and the number of petals is 5 - 13."

 

Close-up photos of the flowers of Hiroshima Ebayama Sakura.

Cherry blossoms in Paris

I visited Paris to attend "the International Symposium on Mathematical Morphology: 40 years on" from Apr. 18 to 20. The above photo contains a cherry tree and a pear tree in the garden of Luxembourg nearby L'École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, the conference site.

 

Photos of these flowers.

Way to Europe

The airplane from Japan to Europe flies above Siberia and Finland. The above photo was taken above Siberia from the airplane in the middle of the flight to Paris. A lot of marshes and winding rivers are found in the summer time and it is dark through the winter time above Siberia; The frozen rivers and land are seen even in spring.

A lake in Finland. The ice covering the lake begins to melt and some cracks appear.

 

Åland islands between Finland and Sweden. Sea ice is melting.

Azaleas nearby the Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University

 

A lot of azaleas are planted in front of the entrance of the Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences of Hiroshima University. The flowers open into full bloom just after cherry blossoms. These photos were taken on May 11. 2005. The left shows the entrance, and the right is the scene toward the gymnasium from the entrance.

 

Photos of the flowers. * Taken with a digital camera Nikon COOLPIX5700.