Yes, that’s right! We are for the most part past the cold, dark and depressing winter season! But we’re not yet into the hot, sticky and exhausting summer season! Yes, spring is here! Japan’s best season (at least in my opinion!) I’ve missed being able to leave the dormitory without thirty layers on. I’ve also missed being able to see past 5pm. (Although the copious amounts of alcohol don’t help)

Speaking of consuming alcohol, my mother is visiting Japan for nearly two weeks! (I’m going to get it for writing that). We have lots of exciting cross-country travel plans (more on them in a bit) but as it’s the first two days, we’ve been busy having lots of reunion parties and also checking out my local area. The first day was rainy, but it seems we’ve timed it perfectly as the beautiful pink cherry blossoms are just starting to open.

As you can see, they’re very pretty. They’re opening all over the region at the moment, which made the tour around the otherwise embarrassingly grey and drab area I live in a little more fun. It’s really amazing how fast Tokyo, especially it’s suburbs, lively and colourful, almost overnight, once the winter goes.

Anyway, we kicked off by wandering around Warabi. We visited the junior school I volunteered at (quotes from which are coming soon!) and put in some serious distance. Then we met up with Mako and headed to Sophia. Now I’d forgotten this but some of the departments, including mine, were holding their graduation so we got to see everyone dressed up in their lovely kimonos and suits to celebrate. We ran into two of the 4th year students from my circle. Here they are being far better dressed than me;

Nice! After that, we headed to the imperial palace, which I’ve visited before, although this time we couldn’t get inside. Still, I managed to take what is called ‘Japan’s most taken photo’. I think you can see why;

It really has everything you could ever need! The palace! A non-Japanese style bridge! Overhung sky! (I dare anyone to manage to get their trip to the palace to coincide with a sunny clear day!)

Today we had lunch with my friend Kanna and her super sweet little son Kazutoshi, and also headed to Asukayama park in Oji (I blogged about it back in ’07), expecting to catch a glimpse of a few early-blooming Sakura. Instead, we got a view at an entirely pink park, with hundreds of people in it. Yes, the Hanami viewing parties have started. (Again, I blogged about one I went to waaay back!) I’m hoping to get to one if I’m still alive after all the travelling I have planned doesn’t kill me…

Yeah, we have a lot planned. Big long lists are boring (even more boring than blog posts!), but in the next week or so I’ll be visiting Hakone, Kyoto (again) , Kamakura (again) , Chiba, Tsukiji Fish market (again), and even more exciting than all of them combined, Narita Airport! YEAH!

Anyway, that’s quite enough for now. I posted this so I could have a clear backlog as the next week is going to see a huge amount of posts. So to tide you over until the Hakone and Kyoto pictures arrive, here’s some more beautiful pink flowers.

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