Sakura-ra-ra-ra-ra GOOOOOO Springtime!

Here are some pictures of Sakura...Sakura is a big freakin' deal in Japan. For about 1 week in the springtime, the cherry trees blossom into bright pink and white. It looks like a second snowfall, but it's warm. Anyway, this is a lot like the Japanese version of Easter. Rather than religious observance or bunnies or something like that, they get together and have "Hanami" parties. Hanami is a combination of the words flower and view. Basically it is a flower watching party. People get together and sit on blue tarps and get stupid, falldown, knockout drunk.  

 All of the schools have trees around the fields. This is outside my elementary school. Pretty right? 

 It was a really nice day, so I took a walk and snapped these pictures.

 We had a little Hanami party of our own at the elementary school for lunch. Nice picture right? I think it really captures the humanity of nature and stuff. For some reason, the picture is unlike any others I have taken...but I can't put my finger on it...

We ate with the 1st grade students. We sat on the blue tarp and enjoyed the sun. Unfortunately, the only thing the kids said was "atsui" which means hot. They said it about 100 times. To be fair...it was very sunny.  

 The principal on the right and the 6th grade teacher on the left. 

 Another blue tarp party further across the field. 

 A view from the Junior High and their Sakura trees. 

 The sad thing about the cherry blossoms is that they only last for about a week or less. Supposedly it is a lesson about life and how it is short and we should take advantage of it while it is here and whatnot...I think we should genetically engineer better cherry trees. 

 At my bi-monthly English lesson, my student (a really nice lady named Nagai) served me some mochi that is for children's day. Evidently they serve it wrapped in an oak leaf. I did find out that you are not supposed to eat the leaf. Sometimes they have cherry blossom mochi where they have the petals all around the outside and they eat them too. It's weird. 

It was pretty good overall.