Sakura Matsuri

I shot this photo at the Sakura Matsuri, the Japanese Festival that took place in Washington DC last Saturday. What a shame! They run out of sushi and ticket for the sake tasting…

Cherry Blossom Festival

In 1912 the City of Washington received from Tokyo’s mayor 3000 cherrys as a symbol of friendship and good relationships between USA and Japan. A few dozens of years later the US returned the gift with two rare (and little less friendly) “mushrooms”: anyway, this is another story…
The exchange continued in 1915, when the US Government gave to Japanese people the “dogwood tree”. In 1981, the City of Yoshino lost her cherrys in a flood and Washington sent there the cuttings of the cherry’s that were vigorously blooming on the Potomac’s banks.
Finally, in 1999 new trees from the japanese province of Gifu were planted around the Tidal Basin.

Every year Washington celebrates the cherrys’ blooming with the “Cherry Blossom Festival”. Dances, concerts, fireworks follow one another for as long as two weeks.
On the Festival opening day I took a stroll in the famous National Mall. Armed with my photo camera, I headed for the National Building Museu, where the opening ceremony was going to take place. The programme was not really exciting: a Miss Universe presents a jazz orchestra and just at the end some more tuned japanese performance.
Anyway, I didn’t feel like staying inside a museum, while the cherry’s were blooming out there…

I walked toward the “Washington garden”. The park was full of kids who were making their colorful kites fly. The first pictures, with the Capitol in the background, did not came out well. I went through the huge park between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, taking photos of the children and their kites and two guys with long dreadlocks.
The National Mall is full of people and there is a long line even at the metro enter. Near the Washington Monument, I see the first clump of flowered trees and many people taking pictures. I took some shots too and then I keep on walking toward the Jefferson Memorial, where most of the trees are, around the artificial basin.
Of course, even in this bucolic scenario, they put the inevitable danger sign. In the bus “watch your step”, everywhere after just a couple of raindrop “attention, wet floor”, on the escalator “attention, lace up your shoes”, on the frozen food “attention, remove all the wrapping before putting in the oven”…
And now: “CAUTION, LOW TREE LIMBS AHEAD”.

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