Sakura Time

Happy Cherry Blossom Season Everyone!!! That's right, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom in the Tokyo area, and the Japanese are in a state of cherry-blossom hysteria. This past weekend I went to Ueno Park (home to over 1,000 cherry blossom trees) for a hanami party (cherry-blossom viewing party).

This is me on one of the main streets in Ueno Park. It is lined with cherry blossom trees (cherry fruit trees are a different species). People lay blue plastic tarps under the trees on each side, and eat, drink, and socialize with their friends as the blossoms flutter down from the trees. Dominoes Pizza even had people walking up and down the street, taking pizza orders. There were thousands of people flowing through the park all afternoon. Luckily, someone had gone early and saved a place for our party.

Once the sun sets, they turn on paper lanterns in Ueno Park for night viewing parties. There were two bad things about this though: 1. they turned the lanterns off at 8:00 pm, and 2. it started to sprinkle soon after that. After quickly gathering the trash and our things, a few of us topped off the night with another Japanese tradition... karaoke!

Also this past weekend, I met up with a few fellow teachers from my training group. As the rain wouldn't cooperate and let us have a hanami, we had to settle for dinner instead.