Quality, not quantity

Plum Blossom │ NEX-7 & Canon nFD 50mm │ 50mm, ISO 100, f/2, 1/800, RAW

It's been a while since I've found the time to update the blog. I've been busy with work and simply haven't had the time to categorise, edit, select, upload, and publish anything from the last week or two. I hope that I'll be able to step up my posting frequency again this month, however.

Yesterday, we visited Ōme on the western fringe of what is acceptable to call Tokyo. It's around 2 hours (70 miles, a few line changes) from our place in central Tokyo, with each station and surrounding area becoming more rural by the minute.

Ōme is a popular tourist destination, mostly for Japanese wanting to escape the hustle-bustle of the big city, but it's common to see a few foreigners with Lonely Planet guide books.

These two kids were visiting Ōme without parental guidance; not something you'd see outside of Japan (in my experience). I've become accustomed to seeing children under 10 years old taking trains by themselves, in convenience stores, and generally walking around. They really look just like "little people", rather than children, sometimes.

Most people are here for the "ume matsuri" or ume festival. Ume are often called plums, but that's not always the case! Either way, the blossom of the Japanese Apricot is why we were there, and that's why everyone else was there too.

The ume blossoms come a month or so before the much revered Japanese "sakura" cherry blossoms, famous the world-over.

In all honesty, when we arrived at the national park, we were a little disappointed. Nothing like the posters, the scenery was pretty arid. A few select blossoms surrounded by people with cameras was not what we had in mind. I think that as the weather warms over the next couple of weeks, a few more might pop up, so we're thinking of going again, as it's a nice day trip.

As such, quality, not quantity was very much the theme of the day! Good proving grounds for the Zeiss and NEX-7, at any rate.

We arrived in the early afternoon, and stayed at the park until around 4pm, when the light starts to get really golden, and the angle creates some interesting shadows.

The blossoms are white, purple, yellow, and some are even green. Looking hard, we were able to find some nice colours and contrasting scenes. There were a few retired hiking types, out with beers and snacks, making the most of the good weather and atmosphere.

They were having a good old chat, about how many times each of them had visited, but I didn't listen-in. I had spotted the scene they were taking in...

And, that concludes the latest update. We plan on heading back to Ōme in a couple of weeks, so I'll be sure to document the changes and experiment with the varying scenes. I hope you liked the collection! ^^