Easter Hanami!

So... bad news. I'm sick. I have a sore throat and congestion and the sides of my neck hurt so now I can't turn my head and instead have to turn my whole body. This makes walking home on a busy road a bit interesting. I'm taking today off from school; I went to my one class yesterday afternoon and I wanted to die by the time I got home. So I'll take it easy today and get some things done around my room, like laundry and catching up on some emails. Exciting, I know.

It's cherry blossom season now, though! Tokyo is gorgeous this time of year; there are cherry trees all over the place, and the entire city is in bloom! Thank goodness I take allergy pills daily, though. If I didn't, I'm sure I'd be less than happy with the pollen count these days.

On Sunday, I went to Kawasaki, which is the next town over, with Inga, Makoto, Eric, Margaret, and Jack for hanami! It was a lovely day out so, we headed to a park near our dorm (we live RIGHT on the border between Yokohama and Kawasaki).

This turtle was hanging out down in the river.

Hanami is pretty simple in concept: you sit under a bunch of blossoming trees with your friends and/or family and eat lots of food, some of which is special and seasonal, like  and a lot of people also use this as an opportunity to get a bit drunk during daylight hours. It's a nice way to spend the afternoon bonding with friends and enjoying food, in my opinion. There are some places that are super famous for hanami, like Ueno Park, and as a result, those spots are extremely crowded this time of year. The park we went to wasn't too crowded, so we had a lovely time.

Homemade omusubi, courtesy of Makoto and Inga.

I provided the donuts.

The four pinkish ones are special cherry blossom donuts. Supposedly they're cherry blossom-flavored, but I couldn't really tell.

Jack decided to play with my camera.

It was a beautiful day.

There's really not that much to write about this, honestly. It was just spending a few hours in the park with my friends and enjoying food and flowers.

I really liked Makoto's shirt.

Okay so. These people were holding up their dog so they could get pictures of it with the flowers, and all I could think was that dad would totally do that for Toby.

I've decided on my classes, by the way. In addition to my core class, I'll be taking Advanced Conversation AI, Advanced Grammar I, Intermediate Presentation II, Advanced Text Reading I, and an International Center course on Japanese Buddhism, which I'm LOVING so far. I've only had one class but I've gone from knowing next to nothing about Buddhism to knowing more than nothing, so that's exciting! I'm also going for a challenge this semester, since I'm technically still an intermediate student (level 7 is the last of the intermediate classes). I'm feeling good about all of my classes, though, and I'm really looking forward to having a fantastic semester! :)