Lizel Strömberg

Hanami @ Botaniska Trädgården
Hanami is a ancient tradidion that still lives on today. It might not have the same meaning in the modern settings, but it still excist and gets celebrated. I don't know a lot about the tradition or the Japanesee culture to understand what it is really about. If I've understood what I've got told is that the orgins of Hanami have to do with making offerings to ensure a good haverst. It also has a lot of poetry about the flowers because of how they're symbolic of life.  
 
Earlier this year, my friend Lina and attended the Hanami celebrations in Gothenburg at "Botaniska Trädgårn". We had never been at this event before but we were looking forward to attend it and photograph the beautiful flowers around the garden. 
First thing that took place that day was the releasing of the koi fishes in the garden's pond. It was a lot more people there to see the release than I expected. It was fun seeing the curiosity in the kids faces. 
 
We briefly met Carol that day as well, which was very nice. I hadn't met her in a while so it was nice seeing her agian. 
I spotted this older couple while photographing and they were so cute. The older man seemed excited to be there and kept photographing the things he saw around him. 
Unfortunately I wasn't that good at capturing the cherry blossom at all, most my photos turned out very shaky and the focus wasn't where it should have been. Photographing flowers and other herbs is not something I do on a daily basis and something I need to learn to get better at. 
It was nice seeing Lina photographing and doing her thing. I can tell how much more confident she has become in her photography and I'm so proud over her!
 
If you want to see Lina's photos from the day you can find them on her blog: http://nouw.com/linam/hanami-goteborg-304-30022166
After seeing how pretty the background turned out in my photo of Lina, I decided I wanted a photo of myself as well. It's not often that I'm in the photos myself, but I'm trying to become more confident infront of the camera. 
Lina and I decided to check out the greenhouse in Botaniska. As it was a very windy and chilly day, it was very nice going in to the warmth. 
In one part of the garden, you were able to try Japanese tea. I drink a lot of tea, but I had never tasted Japanese tea before. It was very interesting to see the woman making and preparing the tea. It had very interesting flavor and it was much stronger than I thought. It was nice getting to taste it, but it wasn't something for me. 
We ended our day with a Fika. I had a very nice day together with Lina! It was nice hanging out with Lina outside from our work to just photograph, chill and just have a nice day. Lina, if you are reading this: Thank you for being a great friend and for your company!
 
This was it for this time and I hope you enjoyed this post. 
Until next time, ingat!
/Lizel