Baseball Under the Skytree at Sarue Onshi Koen

Last weekend while at Sarue Onshi Koen I watched a little of an afternoon baseball game under the watchful gaze of the Tokyo Skytree. This appeared to be one of the many amateur leagues enjoying a cool but overcast spring day.

By the way, it was a strike and the next pitch too!

Nikon D600 with Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens f4.0, ISO 100, 1/400 sec.

Spring Tulips at Sarue Onshi Koen

After the drama with the sparrow, we entered Sarue Onshi Koen and were greeted by lovely spring tulips in full bloom.

Nikon D600 with Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens f4.0, ISO 100, 1/500 sec.

Nikon D600 with Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens f5.6, ISO 100, 1/100 sec.

Nikon D600 with Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens f5.6, ISO 100, 1/100 sec.

Dead Tree Sparrow

My son had a computer club activity this cloudy Sunday morning at HP's Koto-ku Office. While he was computing and being mentally engaged, the rest of the family visited the nearby park, Sarue Onshi Koen. Although it's not a famous park in Tokyo, it has some beautiful green spaces including a small pond and wetland area teaming with frogs, tadpoles, crawfish and other avian and aquatic life. The park has an abundance of cherry trees and looks like it would be a good place for a Hanami picnic.

As we were entering the park, my daughter spotted this sparrow that appears to have succumb to a untimely demise. If she hadn't alerted my wife quickly, it would have been squashed under her shoe. Taking pity on the poor creature, we slid it into a small envelope and buried it under some composite in the park. It seemed to be a better fate than being trampled by a random pedestrian or cyclist.

Nikon D600 with Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens f5.6, ISO 100, 1/160 sec. Cropped and desaturated using Nikon CaptureNX2.