Ueno Hanami 2008 上野 花見

Yesterday we met a few friends in Tokyo's Ueno park for what is by far one of the largest Hanami gatherings in Japan. Ueno park is home to the Japan National Art museum and the Ueno Zoo. They claim over a thousand mature cherry trees. I would say by all means there must have been a half a million people crammed into the park yesterday, with probably at least that many more just walking through with no place to sit. Pretty enjoyable day, and with the blooms peaking in Tokyo this week, it means only 1-2 more weeks before we have our own bloom in Utsunomiya and have a bit of a fest in the Hachimanyama park. This time of the year is by far some of the best party action in Japan.

Easter Sunday 2008

Sunday we invited our new neighbors Hiro, Makiko, and Tora over for a typical Heather and Kevin holiday meal of Italian pasta and all the trimmings and of course we also managed to sprinkle in a few cold Kirins.

Bakery Fire

This morning we noticed that we had a bit more than the usual fire truck and ambulance noise on the street outside of our apartment. When we finally got up to look out the window, we found that it was a small cracker bakery down the street with flames shooting out of the roof. Nothing too exciting I guess but probably more than we usually get on a Sunday morning.

Skeet's Sayonara

Last night we attended a Sayonara party for our co-worker Skeet who is this month closing out his 2.5year stay in Japan. It was a good night starting off at Graphics for the usual 2.5 hour tabe and nomihodai, and then on downtown to the Iceman and Birdland. Here's a few pics from the Graphics or what we will call the PG portion of the evening. Best wishes to Skeet.

Kyu Shinoharake Jutaku 旧篠原家住宅

Friday Kindra and I took a tour of the former residence of the Shinoharas. The Shinoharas were wealthy merchant family who became that way distilling soy sauce and also dealing in manure.
The house is designated as a cultural asset of Utsunomiya. This home was built in 1895, it was donated to the city in 1995 and open to the public in 1996. This Meiji era house is one of the oldest buildings in the Utsunomiya area and is all that remains of what was once a large plantation. The rest of it was burned during the air raids of WWII. Its actually located right down the street and around the corner from our apartment and an interesting piece of local history.

Hanami 花見 is on the horizon.....

Sunday while in a large park down in Omiya, we spotted our first Ume tree in full bloom. The news is already reporting the progress of the bloom down south on the Island of Kyushu. To those of you in the states and elsewhere, I'm sure your thinking no big deal, blooming trees we have those too. But to those living in or who have lived in Japan we know this means that O hanami will soon be here. And in Japan this means the beginning of the outdoor party season. After a fairly cold winter, we are ready. The blooming process across Japan is actually tracked and forecasted with the daily news and weather, more or less like a regional party forecast. Here's an example of a tracking website: http://www.tenki.jp/skr/yosou/index.html
While in Omiya we also did a little shopping at the cocoon mall and while there we visited the Kua-Aina for lunch. Kua-Aina is a burger joint based out of Hawaii. We must say it was a damned good burger. Next was a stop at the Hikawa Shrine (yes, I know, yet more shrine pics), which was located in the large Omiya Koen also containing the Omiya Zoo. We took some time out to people watch, snap a couple of pics, and drink a few cold ones.
http://www.kua-aina.com/