3 in 30 - 2001.02.20 Tuesday
I missed doing snapshots for the weekend of the 10th and snapshots during the weekend of the 17th. On my way to work on the 20th, I took these few snaps.
While it isn't noticeably warmer, some of the trees figure the time has come. This is one of the first plum blossoms I've seen in our neighborhood. They are in front of the house just down the alley close to the street.
Many ornamental plums have deep purple blossoms. This one produces white. There are a couple of trees on the base that we see that a lighter purple. We should go up to Ome one of these weekends and look for plum blossoms. We did go up to Ome last weekend to visit a train museum. Interesting tidbits of Japanese train history.
At the end of our alley, we can usually get a good idea of what traffic conditions will be. This was taken at about 8:05 AM. By this time, the majority of the heavy traffic has passed. It seems that most of the traffic is between 7 and 8 in the morning and 6:30 and 8 in the evening.
The vans you see are stopping for a crosswalk. On my bicycle I use this crosswalk to go between the apartment buildings and then accross the train yard.
The azaleas next to the street are far from blooming, as are the magnolia trees along the sidewalk.
We have mentioned before that it is convenient living near a train station. The trains run about every ten minutes in each direction so there is rarely much of a wait for a train. That also means that trains pass each other every five minutes. At train crossings—especially near a train station—one must wait for the trains to clear before you are able to cross.
This morning, I didn't time my travel by the train schedule. Sometimes I must wait for five trains to go by before the barricade opens. This morning, I had to wait for seven trains, which took about twenty minutes. There were three trains going east into Tokyo and three coming from the east headed toward Ome. In addition to those, there was a special tour train making its way west for some irregularly scheduled trip.
Today was a special case though. Apparently, there was some kind of accident to the west, which slowed train traffic. There would have been an eighth train from the east, but as it approached the station, there was still a train at the platform. The train waited about five minutes and then started backing up, presumably to the previous station.