It's springtime in Japan, and that means cherry blossoms! Yesterday, I went to my very first ohanami, or cherry blossom viewing party. It's a tradition in Japan to go with your family, friends, and coworkers to a park and set up a picnic spot under cherry blossoms... it's very popular, so much so that our spot occasioned a stakeout from about 7am; the actual event was scheduled for noon. It's a sort of potluck-picnic; everyone brings a snack to share, plus alcohol, and you get drunk and chat to people and consume delicious things all afternoon.
Today is beautiful and sunny, with gorgeous warm weather; I took a bike ride to my grocery store, since my 105-yen Lawson's mysteriously closed last week. I discovered, much to my delight, that my river is lined with sakura on the block near my grocery store, so of course I took some pictures.
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| They're not quite at peak bloom, yet. |
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| On the other side of the road, near the baseball field. |
oooh, so beautiful! and such a lovely tradition--I was so charmed with the one last fall where you had moon-viewing parties and read poetry, too. Can we do that here when you get back?
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