Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossom-watching (or Hanami) is very popular amongst Japanese people.  When I first heard about it, I didn't really understand how an event could be focused around merely eating under a tree.  

After experiencing my first hanami today, I still don't really get it.

I suppose the cherry blossoms are pretty and the weather is getting nicer, but I think I'm missing something.  It's probably the fact that we are a week late in viewing the blossoms -- apparently, the trees were absolutely covered with them last weekend.  The window of opportunity to do hanami is quite narrow, I'm learning.  Anyways, Akiko and I bought some sandwiches and onigiri and headed over to the local river where there are lot of cherry trees lining the banks.

I also used this opportunity to test out my newly-acquired wide-angle adapter.  Yeah, I'm a nerd.

Check the pics below.

Nakameguro river

Hrm.  Maybe there is more beauty than I first thought.

A reminder that we were too late to see these in trees.  Fiddle-sticks.

Okay, a nice pedestrian pathway, nice trees, yadda-yadda.  I'm just going to be a nerd here and start talking about this lens adapter I just got: it's noticeably wider, which is great.  However, on shots where the focus is pretty much infinity, there is some insane chromatic-abberation on the edges.  Check the upper-part of the photo at the leaves and you'll see what I mean.

Same CA problems here.

Most sandwiches sold in Japan have the crust removed.  Just like how mom made them.

Allergy-machines.  I secretly despise them.  Just kidding.

As for the adapter, I've seen some images of it twisted onto a 14mm and it showed similar soft-focus and CA on the edges.  No biggie: the shots with thick bokeh look good and at least I can capture more in a single frame now.

I have some photos of our trip to Kyushu to post up soon.  Stay tuned!