Upbeat and Downstairs: Home of Daryl C. Donatelli

It can be so difficult to come up with appropriately cheesy titles for these posts.

Summertime in Japan, particularly in the Tokyo area, means beautiful fireworks displays (“hanabi”) nearly every weekend. Throngs of onlookers set up viewing spots hours in advance, similar to the “hanami” experience during cherry blossom season.

Tonight’s show over the north part of Tokyo Bay was no exception in both beauty and in the sheer number of viewers. Last year’s show was canceled out of respect for the Great East Japan Earthquake victims, making this year’s show all the more special.

And then everyone has to get home!

The iPhone makes a pretty handy camera, and did a really nice job capturing this shot while flying over Shimane Prefecture in western Japan this week. Living in the bustling city of Tokyo makes it easy to forget that other areas of Japan can seem like entirely different countries altogether…

Here are a few photos of this morning’s annular solar eclipse as seen in Tokyo. The cloud cover made for an eerie experience, but actually helped diffuse the sun’s brightness so my camera could capture it:

I offer no apologies for having put the 1983 Bonnie Tyler song in your head.

Every spring, countries all around the world celebrate the annual ritual of cherry blossom season, and no country captures it in art, poetry, ancient literature — and even on the nation’s currency — more than Japan.

This is only my first spring in Tokyo, so I don’t have any basis for how this year’s “sakura” celebrations compare to previous, but the locals tell me this was quite an amazing year. Moreover, with last year’s cherry blossom season coming just weeks after the Great East Japan Earthquake, many Japanese did not celebrate the season out of respect for those who lost their lives or property.

Sakura are quite symbolic for a variety of reasons, but most prominently for their association with mortality and proof that life is transient. Here are some attempts at capturing the wonderment of it all: