Today (April 18th , 2019) is warm, but last week it snowed! Amazingly, the snowfall happened when our cherry blossoms were in full bloom!

I’d seen that combination of cherry blossoms and snow only once before, in 2010. Obviously, snow is rare in April (especially a heavy snow) here in Fukushima City.

These photos were taken…..I think Wednesday last week? Or maybe Thursday. I don’t remember. Anyway, I left very early in the morning (about 5:45 a.m) to take these photos. I knew that the snow would melt soon.

This cherry blossom tree is in another part of Fukushima City. It’s later the same day, when I was riding my bike on an errand. The building in the background (left side) is the City Hall.

The above photo was taken a few days after the snowfall. You can see that the branches that are almost in the center of the photo were damaged by the snow–they’re hanging directly downward, instead of springing outward.