Cherry Blossom Adventures

Well Cherry blossom/Sakura season is almost over…Hanami parties have been had and lots of photos have been taken!!! I thought it was about time I actually got around to posting some photos!

I actually went to one hanami party this year, the one I organized (although then we merged with Deanne and Masao from Tokyo Made for their pink party and they basically did all the work!!) and we were a bit early. And basically there were no blossoms. But we still had a blast…and our own little tree!

This past weekend would have been perfect for a hanami (blossom viewing) party/picnic…although it was fairly cloudy it was still fairly warm and the blossoms were out in full bloom! Shumpei and I headed to Shinjuku Gyoen (A park in Shinjuku which is about 15 minutes from where I live by train) and paid our 200 yen (I had no idea that you had to pay into some parks…I was also shocked when we were in Okinawa and you had to pay to use some beaches…Seems crazy doesn`t it?) to enter the very crowded park. It was lovely though. And I really want to go back in Autumn to see the difference between seasons! I had never been before, and I certainly hadn`t seen the cherry blossoms there before, so it was a great day out! I took way too many photos!

Then yesterday we headed out to Chiba to Shumpei`s parents place. We are supposed to go back there once a month but it had been ages since I had been there, almost two months. I hadn`t been since before my birthday anyway and was shocked to find present waiting for me there from his parents and his brother and his brother`s wife. Also after dinner I go a cake with happy birthday written on it. And they sang for me! Birthdays are not a big deal in Japan (Much to my dismay!) but I was really happy (and surprised) that they had remembered and gone to so much trouble!

This was my cake!!

It deserves to be a big photo don`t you think! It says `Tanjyoubi omedetou` which means happy birthday in Japanese! I love Japanese short cake too!!!! Plus the let me eat the white chocolate birthday message thingy! It was yummy!

We also went out to Chiba to see the sakura out there. Right near Shumpei`s parents house is a small creek that has sakura trees all along it. The best thing is that they have lanterns in the trees so at night it looks especially beautiful. They call it yozzakura (Night sakura) and it really is stunning. The photos don`t do it justice but that didn`t stop me from taking a million shots while I walked along with Shumpei.

We also went to see some Shidarezakura at a local temple (Well we thought it was local but in the end it was a 30 minute bike ride away!) we took Holly, the dog! Shidarezakura is the type in the photos…It is hanging down! (I was going to explain it better but I can`t!) The shidarezakura tree in these photos is more than 400 years old!

There are a couple more photos here if you are interested! I love this type of year and I am sad to see that the cherry blossoms will all be gone soon (Although when they are all falling, petal by petal, is also a great time to go to a park cos it is like it is raining flowers!) But I am very excited cos now that Spring has started properly it means golden week is almost here. And during golden week I am going back to Australia for a quick visit!!! Yay! I am so excited to see family and friends, go shopping and go to a cafe and be able to have a nice sandwich. Oh and eat all my other favourite foods. And cheap fruit! Oh I can`t wait!!!

Quick question: When you played hide and seek when you were a kid did you just face away from the person that was `up` put your hands over your eyes and just stand or sit there? My brother used to do something similar to that. He would always go to his bedroom sit down in the middle of the room and cover his eyes…I guess he figured he couldn`t see anyone so nobody could see him. I thought it was just him. Turns out though it is fairly normal for kids to be that stupid and think that that works. A little boy (age 4) in Spring school at work at the moment does that whenever we play hide and seek at the park. It is the funniest thing to watch!!!!

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