Sakura, sakura

It's that time of yet again. The weather's gotten warmer, the air is getting moist and the cherry trees are in bloom. This is what Japan goes a bit bonkers for. Sakura. Cherry blossom. Across Japan people will be partying tonight as they were last night and through the weekend, eating and drinking under the cherry blossoms. Young couples enjoying the romance of the trees in bloom and the carpets of petals, salary men enjoying the excuse to socialise with colleagues and get completely plastered, and gaijin, wandering round, looking at the trees, saying "yeah, we have cherry blossom in England/ America/ Australia/ wherever". But really it is beautiful if just for sheer volume of blossom alone, and thus I made sure I was in a good state to make the most of it.

With an important work party on Friday night where we said our goodbyes to the teachers who were moving on, it was almost impossible not to drink too much, especially as it started at 6pm and finished just before midnight. But I did my best. I was drunk, but for the first time in weeks didn't have a hangover.

On Saturday I cycled to Kuse through the Kuse tunnel (the local name for the street lined both sides with cherry blossoms- like a tunnel when the trees are in full bloom) and had a good look at sakura. On to LeeJay's to meet Nao chan and the three of went to enjoy hanami (cherry blossom viewing party) in Tsuyama city. Hanamis usually involve lots of booze, but as ours was in the day and with a fair drive (1 hour each way), we went one better and had a chocolate hanami. Mmm... Well the weather outdid itself and it was in the low 70s, so I wore shorts and a t-shirt. Apparently a controversial choice as most of the people I walked past seemed to do a double take at my clothes. And why would they be looking at me with all that's around them? Kakuzan park is Tsuyama's old castle grounds. Most of the castle has gone, but the grounds are now stunning, each level holding hundreds of cherry trees, and on Saturday they were 100% in bloom. I know this because the Japanese have specific terms for how much of the cherry blossoms have opened and these were 100%. I'll put up some pictures later.

So we took lots of pics, sat down and ate chocolate, moved on to Shurakoen park and then headed back to Katsuyama where LeeJay, Christine, Jeremy and I had an evening hanami to go to . Again shocking people by only wearing a short sleeve shirt, we sat out till 10 eating and drinking and enjoying good company. The party was organised by the lady who runs our English Conversation class and her mother. They are the cool people in town, so this was a cool party. And the food was great. Lots of laughs and good conversation later and it was time to go. Mainly because we were way too plastered.

A lazy Sunday followed- a trip to Kuse to collect my bike, LeeJay came for tea and we watched films. Monday night saw me bailing out of dance class to try and sort out travel for Golden Week (I want to go to Tokyo). But to no avail as everything was shut. Bloody buggery. So I wandered round Kakuzan park in the dark (except it wasn't really dark as there were lanterns everywhere so people could have nighttime hanamis. And boy were they doing just that. The place was rammed full of partying people and drunken old men staggering up rocky castle path walkways. And it was rather pretty too.

We have one more hanami party to go and that is on Wednesday in Kuse. That is providing that they still have the lanterns by the river...