Chasing Sakura

A common writing prompt on English tests for my students is "Tell me about your town." Invariably, they will reply with, "My town has a lot of nature." Well, that's nice. No ATMs open after 9 on a weekend, no non-Japanese food other than McDonalds, but at least there are lots of trees. Well, sometimes trees can be pretty cool. As anyone that attended my nationally-televised Hanami party in Ueno park can tell you, once the cherry trees start blossoming, everyone better pay attention. Something about those trees just fills everyone with a desire to revel in being alive.

As spring and warmer temperatures slowly start crawling up the islands of Japan, the sakura trees follow north, but they don't stay for very long in any one place. Part of the appeal is, of course, that the pale pink blossoms only stay on the trees for about a week before being replaced by green leaves. Ueno park this year ended up being a bit of a perfect storm, with rainy weather both Friday and Sunday leaving Saturday as the only viable day for people to party under the trees. And party they did, coming from all over Tokyo, Chiba, Tochigi, Saitama, not to mention 20 ALTs from Ibaraki. Compared to Ueno, Hitachi's Sakura Matsuri, two weekends later, was a much calmer affair. Still, strolling along Heiwa street while chatting with Kenpoku area friends and munching on the gyoza at G-bros is always worth the short ride down. For the first time I visited Kamine park, as it was shutting down, giving its mostly abandoned attractions an eerie feeling. Back in downtown Hitachi, the cherry blossom festival was already over, street stalls and rockabilly dancers replaced with a line of cars snaking towards the station.

There's something calming in that contrast between the bright flower petals and the night sky behind them. Still, it wasn't long before Hitachi's trees went green, and Takahagi's along with them. I thought I would have to leave the Kanto area and go north to Fukushima or even further to get what I really wanted, a picture of my car surrounded by cherry blossoms. Unfortunately I didn't actually have my car back from Kazama Auto until last Saturday, and by the time I had it back in Takahagi I was too beat to do much exploring. Luckily, it turns out I didn't have to go far. Today I was able to leave work a bit early since almost all of the teachers were out visiting parents, meaning no classes to teach. I took the afternoon to cruise around Takahagi and experience some of that nature my kids are always bragging about.

Although my main school is only a 2 minute walk from the beach, actually only a very small part of Takahagi lies along the coast. The rest of it is covered in mountains extending to the northwest. The climate change between the two areas means that although everything in the city area of Takahagi where I live is done, trees in the higher elevations are hitting their prime right now. I was informed of this by a distinguished older gentleman who insisted I called him Professor Sakuragi. Maybe. I also learned that yamazakura, the cherry trees that bloom naturally on the mountainside, can be quite different from the rows of trees planted in the cities below. Many of them are completely uncultivated, naturally growing to impressive heights and spreading their branches wide. Their blossoms tend to clump together, and many times they will appear simultaneously with the green leaves. All of which makes this tree in Shimokimida (3 minutes from my mountain school!) all the more impressive.

Professor Sakuragi went on to tell me that he and his wife had been to our very location only two days before, only to find that the tree had not yet started to bloom. With rain in the forecast for the next few days, he (and I) were quite lucky to see such a beautiful tree blossoming at that time. Proving their devotion to nature, or at least sightseeing, people actually come from well outside of Takahagi just to see this tree. Oh yeah, and I did get plenty of pictures of my car and sakura trees amidst the wonderful nature all around Takahagi.

Must be dreaming

Let's ignore the fact that I only have 4 more paychecks before I am unemployed with which to move out of my apartment, pay the deposit on a new one, and live however long it takes me to find a new job in Tokyo, and just do some shopping for my car.

Also, shaken. Urgh. Yearly tax on cars that could end up costing me around $1000US. No way around it.

But, next, cooling. My car's been running pretty hot since I got it, usually around 98-99C. When I get it on the track, hopefully soon, I'm gonna need to do something about that, better radiator maybe. Looks like Koyorad has one for about 4 man, or Trust is 9. Yikes. Getting the heat out of the engine compartment would be a good idea too, so an aero bonnet could give proper ventilation. Could go full carbon, which would look sweet and be lighter, but more expensive and maybe more flashy than I want. D-MAX does this carbon one for 7 man or FRP for 5, although this picture is from a 90 chaser since theres no pic for the mark II on their site. Second is a FRP hood from Car Modify Wonder that I saw at the Auto Salon in January, but since their website is crap I have no idea how much it would be. I do like the fact that it's a little less duct-y than the D-MAX hood, but then again, that's kind of the point, isn't it. Last is a FRP bonnet from Hippo Sleek (what kind of name is that, seriously) that costs as much as a full carbon bonnet, 7 man, and would require another couple man to get painted. Of course that one is my favorite so far. D'oh.


Next is the headlights. As you can see, the passenger headlight is getting yellowed. It's nothing big, and purely cosmetic, but bothers me. Options are getting a used set of factory headlights in better condition off yahoo auctions for probably about 6000 yen, or replace the covers with new plastic ones, which would look sweet but cost 2 man plus labor.


Or, I could rent a heat gun and try to do it myself. Could be fun.

That's probably all realistically in terms of what I'm gonna do to my car, unless more stuff breaks. Eventually I'll need to replace some of the aero parts, especially the rear bumper, which I put a huge crack pretty much the first week I had the car. But, before I do that, I want to try taking it out to Ebisu myself.