枝垂れ桜 【しだれ桜】（shidare・zakura) A beatiful, weeping cherry tree on the banks of the newly flooded rice paddies, soon to be planted with this years crop. Most of the cherry blossoms have long since fallen to earth, petal by petal like snowflakes in the warm spring wind, gathering in pink puddles beneath the trees. I found this tree in full bloom near Nagano, in Magome、 a small yet remarkably well-preserved Edo period post town on the Nakasendo (中仙道･The Road Through the Mountains), which once connected Shogunate power center Edo (now Tokyo) with the Imperial seat of Kyoto. Magome is also the birthplace of one of Japan's most revered and beloved authors, Shimazeki Toson. (Conveniently located about 20 minutes from my humble abode! (^-^)/)
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