Hanami and Dinner Last Night

I haven't written anything in a long time, not because I am busy, not because nothing interesting has happened, because I just haven't had time to use my computer in a while...

So every spring when the Sakura (Cherry Blossoms Bloom) what do Japanese people do? They get drunk. It's probably one of the coolest celebrations of the year though. The trees bloom and parks suddenly look like clouds have landed in them. The Japanese take this as another excuse to let loose. So far this year they've had Oshogatsu (New Years Celebration), Setsubun (The Bean Throwing Festival), Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Man Fest), and a few others here and there. This fest rolls around and it's time to get down. EVERYONE takes part in it too. Parks all around the country get giant blue tarps laid out where people can sit and have picnics. Some parks have sign up sheets where you sign out a spot to have your picnic. Then, you and your friends show up and drink all day and night. Some companies will send people out in the morning to reserve a spot, the people will wait there all day saving the spot and then at night the other show up and boogie down together.

Sunday when the blossoms really started to show themselves I went for a walk with my friend for a few hours checking them out. Then today class was held at Tsurumai Park and all we had to do was write one haiku. Then we walked around, ate lunch, ate ice cream, and just got to relax. It was a great start to the weeks and I wish we had class at the park everyday...




Last night, my host family got home from their trip out to Shizuoka. My gift from the trip? My very own strawberry bush that has strawberrys slowly getting ripe on it. I couldn't be happier. I love strawberries. We then sat down for dinner and ate Whale Blubber Miso Soup and a giant Tuna Fish's Head. It was massive, big enough that everyone in the family shared one and there was still plenty left. It was hard to go at it at first but it was pretty delicious. I was even given a spoon and was offered to eat some of the Eye. They pulled the outside of the eye off and scooped out the back of the eye area and I just dug right in. It was pretty tasty buuuut once is probably enough.

My host mom left for Hawaii today. SHe'll be there for a 5 days. Her suitcase weighed 30 Kilograms which is 66 pounds. How's that for over packing? She's visiting some people in who she visited for a wedding a year ago and before she met them she wanted to write them a letter in English. Since she's really amazing at english she was fine writing it but she wanted me to look over it. There was a few grammar points I changed and I had to break up some run-ons to make it sound a little more fluent but she's so good at english... my favorite line was the following... (Midori is the girl who got married, she is writing her parent-inlaws.)

"Midori called us the "Crazy Japanese Trio" because we became so relaxed without our husbands that we shopped so much that our bags became so large that when we were in the elevator it became so narrow that other people could not board. SO STUPID!!!!" I don't know if anyone else finds this funny, but I really really did and I laughed when I was reading it. My host dad kept asking me what it said and she told me not to translate it for him...

As Always If you'd like see more pictures from the Sakura season and my little exploring of a shrine, feel free to go to www.michaelmalarkey.myphotoalbum.com