Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington, DC, 2005

(Originally written on April 10, 2005)

I finally checked out the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in downtown DC with my Dollfie Dream, Sakura, in tow. I've been to previous festivals but this was the first time I brought a doll with me. I recently finished making a cherry blossom kimono for Sakura and I thought it would be cute to take a few photos of her wearing her new cherry blossom kimono among the cherry blossom trees. (What's more, her very name is Japanese for "cherry blossom.")

I had some free time on late Friday afternoon so I took the Metro to the Tidal Basin with Sakura in a duffel bag. Once I reached the flowering cherry blossom trees, I took Sakura out of the duffel bag and started snapping away. Here are a few thumbnails of the photos (just click on a thumbnail to see a larger version of the photo open in a new window):

The hardest part about taking those photos was the fact that I've been suffering from a pulled muscle in my left hip. I recently started a new exercise regimen and I got so enthusiastic that I started to feel pain in my left hip so I have to spend the next week laying off that new exercise regimen altogether until the pain goes away. I wanted to walk all the way around the tidal basin basking in the blooming cherry blossom trees like I did other years but I was physically unable to do so. It was too bad because I wanted to take a photo of Sakura next to a Japanese stone lantern but it was located somewhere on the other side of the Tidal Basin and I was in too much pain to continue.

There were quite a few people at the Tidal Basin but I had plenty of breathing space to take photos of my doll without being interrupted by anyone. The next day was a different matter.

Some people on the Den of Angels forum talked about taking their dolls to the Jeferson Memorial to meet there and then walk over to the Sakura Matusi street festival. Unfortunately, with the state of my hip, I didn't think I could handle walking the nearly two miles from the steps of the Jefferson Memorial to the Federal Triangle area (where the street festvial was being held) so I decided to just go to the Sakura Matsui and hope that I somehow run into other ball-jointed doll owners. So I packed Sakura into a duffel bag and headed out the next day.

I initially drove to the Greenbelt Metro station and found the lines to the faircard machine so long that I knew I would have to wait in line for at least an hour to get a new faircard for the trip. (I forgot to purchase a new faircard the day before.) I didn't think my injured hip could handle it so I drove to the recently opened Largo Metro station and found not only convenient parking but zero lines at the faircard machines. I felt proud of myself for finding an alternate way of going downtown.

But then I discovered something else once I reached the Sakura Matsui. The crowds were much heavier than they were the last two years. In the previous two years I had no problem with the lines getting food and I had an easy time with viewing the street performers. (I think part of the reason was that the lower attendance was the result of the September 11 terrorist attack when many Americans were literally afraid to travel, especially to areas of the country that were directly affected by what happened in 2001.)

This year was different. The lines were so long at the food vending areas that I ended up eating a sub at a local Quizno's (after standing in a realtively short line for a half-an-hour). I couldn't see any street performers because of the heavy crowds surrounding each performer. What's worse is that my hip was throbbing at times.

This year there was an exhibit of 75 Mickey Mouse statues outside the nearby Ronald Reagan Building that were originally commissioned by Disney to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the release of the first Mickey Mouse short. I managed to get one decent photo of Sakura with a statue:

Unfortunately taking photos of the statues became too much of a challenge to continue. First I had to wait for other photographers to finish taking their photos of a particular statue. Then I had the bad luck of having a small child literally rush at a statue I was about to take a picture of. I also had to deal with small children pointing at my doll whenever I attempted to take a photo of the doll with a statue. The final straw came when I placed Sakura at the base of a Mickey Mouse statue and a tiny child of about three or four ran over to my doll while I was taking a picture of her and attempted to swipe her. After that incident, I placed the doll back into the duffel bag.

What I wrote about in the previous paragraph is one of the main reasons why, unlike some of the other ball-jointed doll owners who post frequently on the Den of Angels forum, I rarely carry my doll with me in public. I don't mind talking to strangers about Sakura if they are genuinely interested in my doll and don't wish to make fun of me. But dealing with small children who are too young to understand that not all dolls are for them to play with is a bit too much for me to deal with. I just don't want to be responsible for a young child throwing a temper tantrum in public because he/she isn't allowed to grab my doll for them to manhandle and roughhouse like they would with their own toys at home.

I would've removed Sakura from the duffel bag only if I found other doll owners who were carrying their dolls around the festival. Well, I never found any fellow doll owners so Sakura remained in the duffel bag. I tried to check out the various tables but it was way too crowded. These photos will give you an idea of how crowded it was:

I ended up leaving the festival much sooner than I originally planned because my hip was so sore that I was literally limping. I was surprised that I was able to get up this morning with no pain at all. I can still feel the pulled muscles in my hip so I'm spending most of today sitting down. I did manage to take a few more photos of my Volks Dollfie Dream and my Volks Dollfie Plus Blue Lady around the cherry blossom trees and other flowers in my neighborhood.

Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington, DC, 2005

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