Spring showers and cherry blossoms.

This morning on CNN it was mentioned that the cherry blossoms are in full glory in Washington D.C.  A little more research taught me that those cherry trees were a gift from Japan in 1912, planted by First Lady and President Taft and Vicountess Chinda of Japan (although I imagine they had some help with that - there are 3,700 of them, after all).

Fitting then that our plan for the day was to view the cherry blossoms, also in bloom here in Osaka, Japan. According to Fodor's the best place to do that is Osaka-koen (park) and Osaka-jo (castle). Off we went.

We decided to give the subway system a shot, and the first 45 minutes (maybe more) were spent staring blankly at the various signs, charts and maps, trying to figure out who, when, what. ..? Someone finally took pity on us and we were told where to go, but it didn't quite help -- we managed to go the long way 'round the circle line. We just stayed put, knowing we'd eventually end up at our destination, since it does travel in a loop. It was a long ride.

Eventually we did indeed land in the park area, a 10-minute walk from the subway line. I was very happy to have my Totally Tourist rain jacket, as the morning drizzle had turned to real rain. There were no crisp blue backdrops for my blossom shots -- the sky was steel, giving the fanciful castle a mournful air. The colorful umbrellas were as pretty as the blossoms, and I was surprised by how many there were -- it's seems the rain deterred no one today!

We bypassed the castle tour but walked for hours through the park, where there were apricots and plum trees in addition to the cherries.   It felt very...well, Japanese. Beautiful. This is a perfect time to be here (and I wouldn't complain one bit if the sun decided to peek out one of the days).

For lunch we had street vendor food: corn on the cob for me (cold and mushy), and franks on a stick for Steve. Eaten standing in the rain, it was something to endure rather than enjoy.  Time to go home.

More confusion on the subway, where we somehow managed to purchase the wrong tickets and couldn't get through the turnstile. The man who had to refund our money was very patient...both times. The third time was the charm and we made our way to Namba station.

Steve was pretty miserable and sore from two consecutive days of walking, so he napped.  And is still napping 4 hours later...  I am sitting at my computer and hoping dinner is in our near future!