Ohanami is the Japanese custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers. "Ohanami" most often refers to the celebrating the cherry blossoms or "sakura" but the Japanese also celebrate the plum blossoms or "ume." The plum blossoms are considered the "heralds of spring" and they are heralding now! This weekend, we took a trip to the cute little coastal town of Hikari to attend a plum blossom festival. The plum blossoms were gorgeous!
There are several varieties of ume. The one above is of the weeping variety. Up close it looked like a weeping willow only with beautiful, fragrant blooms on it.
The park where the festival was held overlooks the Seto Inland Sea.
Some examples of the various ume.
The blooms above are not ume blossoms. These blossoms were on a camellia bush. Gorgeous as well.
The blossoms were not the only lovely thing about this park.
This pond had koi fish and turtles!
The boys are all on the bridge. You can almost see them.
