Washington, D.C., Cherry Blossom Festival 2015

Every year between mid-March and mid-April, the Tidal Basin area of Washington, D.C., is bathed in soft white blossoms of the cherry trees.  The cherry trees were a gift from the Japanese mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki to the city of Washington, D.C., in 1912 to honor the relationship between the two countries.  

Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki, image courtesy of the BBC. 

To achieve the beauty Tidal Basin experiences every spring since 1912 was not a simple endeavor.  The idea to plant the cherry trees along the banks of the Potomac River was first proposed by socialite Eliza Scidmore, the first female board member of the National Geographic Society and fundraiser for the cherry tree initiative.  First Lady Helen Taft had lived in Japan while her husband, President William Howard Taft, was the president of the Philippine Commission.  First Lady Taft knew the beauty of the cherry trees and supported Ms. Scidmore's idea.  Once the Japanese consul in New York learned of the first lady's interest, the office suggested making a gift of the trees to the U.S. government from the city of Tokyo.  

First batch of trees in 1910 that had to be destroyed due to disease.
Image courtesy of the BBC.

The first shipment of 2,000 cherry trees arrived in 1910, but had become diseased en route and had to be destroyed.  However, with additional coordination between the Japanese and American governments and the efforts of Dr. Jokichi Takamine (famous chemist and founder of Sankyo Co., Ltd., today known as Daiichi Sankyo), Dr. David Fairchild of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ms. Scidmore, and First Lady Taft, more than 3,000 new, healthy cherry trees arrived in 1912.  On March 27, 1912, First Lady Taft and the wife of the Japanese ambassador (Viscountess Chinda) planted the first two trees on the north bank of Tidal Basin along the Potomac River.

The cherry trees and their gorgeous white blossoms became popular among D.C. residents and visitors, and in 1934, the city commissioners sponsored a 3-day festival of the blossoming trees.  This later grew into the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.  The trees remain an important symbol of the relationship between the United States and Japan.  In 1915, the U.S. government reciprocated the gift by sending Japan flowering dogwood trees.  After World War II, cuttings from Washington,, D.C.'s cherry trees were sent back to Japan to restore the Tokyo cherry trees that were destroyed by American bombing campaigns during the war.  In 1981, more cherry tree cuttings were given to Japanese horticulturists to help replace some of the cherry trees destroyed by a flood in Japan.  Today, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival spans four weekends between mid-March and mid-April and more than 1.5 million visitors come to view the results of the gift from a century before.  For more information on the history of the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C,, check out the Festival's official webpage and the History Channel's profile.

Although the festival takes place over several spring weekends, the blooming of the delicate blossoms can be fickle and difficult to predict.  To help out with timing a visit, the National Parks Service even has the "Blossom Cam," a camera of the Tidal Basin area where you can check in on the blossoms' progress blooming.

Today however, the blossoms were definitely in their peak.  Along with some friends from law school, I joined the crowds along Tidal Basin to walk beneath the shade of the cherry trees and marvel at their soft white blossoms filtering the sunlight.

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Posted in: Cherry Blossoms,English,History,J-Mad,Japan,Post-Bar Life,United States,Washington DC

April Adventures

Since the last post, April took off with a flying start and was a very busy, final month in DC. One of my friends from New York City came down to DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Luckily, there were still enough blossoms outside. We spent the weekend seeing all the different memorials and went to Tidal Basin area twice to see the blossoms. There was also a kite festival taking place on the National Mall by the Washington Monument.

On the final day that we went to Tidal Basin, we stopped by the Jefferson memorial. We happened to be there at the right time on the one not-rainy day that weekend, and there was a group setting up for a wedding. There were two guys with guitars under trees outside waiting for it to start. Because the bride and groom are not supposed to see each other that day until they are at the altar, the wedding party had set a privacy screen and a tiny plastic chair outside for the bride to stay behind until the wedding started.















On Tuesday, April 12, our Farsi conversation class decided to go to the E Street Cinema to catch one of the Iranian films playing in the Film Festival that month. We ended up seeing "Dog Sweat." It was a pretty interesting and well-made film. And definitely better than sitting in a classroom.

That Saturday, the weather was raining again, so I went to the one place that I knew was guaranteed to have good weather - the Botanical Gardens. The rooms there are very cool, especially the Jungle Exhibit. The jungle room has a tropical rain forest in it, and there is a catwalk up above so that you can walk around the perimeter of the exhibit at the canopy level and look down. From the Gardens, I went to walk around the Capitol Building and spent a bit of time in the Library of Congress. Now that I've got my nifty LOC library card, I was able to get inside the Thomas Jefferson main reading room through underground tunnels and get into the room's alcoves. It's pretty much the closest thing to a Beauty and the Beast library that I've seen in real life. I want it.

On Sunday, April 17, I met my cousin and we drove to the National Arboretum. It is so beautiful and there are very nice trails for walking, biking, and driving. There is a bonsai tree museum part that has trees from the late 1800s. There is also what looks like a temple sitting on the grassy hill. Those columns are actually from the portico of the Capitol Building that was taken down in 1958 in order to make the expansions on the building. The reflecting pool in front of the columns in the National Arboretum is made of marble taken from the old wall of the Senate wing of the Capitol Building when renovations were being made.After spending some time both walking and driving around the National Arboretum, we made our way over to Annapolis, Maryland. We crossed the 5 mile long Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake Bay to get a view of the water and then turned around and headed straight into downtown Annapolis. Our first stop was a quaint ice cream shop downtown by the marina and Naval Academy. We walked around the marina area for a little bit and found a statue of Alex Haley, author of Roots.
We then walked into the US Naval Academy (USNA) and strolled around the campus. We walked around past the really nice houses that are homes to the families of the Deans of the USNA. Past this area, the USNA has a gorgeous chapel and a huge courtyard that has a statue of the figurehead of the USS Delaware.
The USS Delaware was one of the first ships that the US Navy built. It was scuttled by Union troops during the Civil War to prevent the Confederate Army from using it. When the Union soldiers returned to the wreckage, they found that the ship's wooden figurehead had survived completely intact. The bronze cast statue of the figurehead is now a good luck symbol for students come exam time.On our way out of Annapolis, we passed St. Johns College. It was originally named King William's School, founded in 1696 in the Maryland colony, and officially chartered in 1784. It is obvious that the area surrounding this school is pretty old itself by the architectural styles of the houses and the narrow streets. We also passed the Maryland state capitol building, which apparently is pretty cool. If I get a chance to go back to Annapolis, then I will have to make sure to visit these places.

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Posted in: Annapolis,Botanical Gardens,Capitol Hill,Cherry Blossoms,English,J-Mad,Library of Congress,National Arboretum,Navy,Washington DC

Noruz and Early Spring in the District

In the weeks since I last wrote, lots has been happening. On the work side, we were extremely busy with nationwide community service projects and hosting large conference featuring some pretty influential speakers. We are now gearing up for more events, and I am busy as ever writing articles, figuring out placement for the summer, as well as housing for the summer and fall. Through friends, I started taking a small, conversation-based Farsi class. It is really good to be practicing speaking again, as I haven't had much of an opportunity since graduating in December. The class moves quickly, and it's pretty impressive how good some of the American students are with the language.

Noruz, Persian New Year celebrated on the vernal equinox annually, was on March 20^th this year. It is now the year 1390. Part of Noruz traditions involves gathering with family to celebrate, but this year, since I am on the coast, my family was fortunate enough to visit me. We spent the time going to several DC attractions including the Air & Space Museum, American Indian Museum, Botanical Gardens, Library of Congress, and the Vietnam, World War II and Lincoln memorials. We

also visited the Shahnameh exhibit at the Sackler Gallery, Moby Dick House of Kabob, and Maz Jobrani’s comedy show, to add a Persian flare to the DC experience. The Sackler also had a Noruz special for the community where I had the chance to play some backgammon.

Listen to Maz Jobrani on NPR:

For Noruz, we went back to Kabob Bazaar in Arlington for their special buffet of traditional foods and all the rice one could ever eat. It was amazing, to say the least. After dropping my family off at the airport, I spent the rest of that day walking around Georgetown.

Since everything closes early in DC, if I am looking for something cheap to do afterward, I usually head over to the local Barnes and Noble bookstore. I finished To Kill a Mockingbird, a book that I had always wanted to read but had not yet done so until now. I have moved onto a book called The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. After only the first chapter, I am hooked.

The weather has started to get warmer and cherry blossoms and magnolia trees are flowering everywhere. The Cherry Blossom Festival will begin in April, and I have some friends coming into DC just to see it. The waterfront area of the southwest side is also very pleasant to walk around, and I wandered there this past weekend. In exploring the area along the river, I saw a random sign for a Titanic memorial. After following the sidewalk along the marina, I found it. It's nice to know that Washington, DC decided to immortalize Leonardo DiCaprio in a monument somewhere. And I think I found the place to throw my sabzi into the river on Sizdah Bedar...

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Posted in: Cherry Blossoms,English,J-Mad,Library of Congress,Maz Jobrani,Noruz,Shahnameh,Washington DC