Plan for today was to go for a long drive to see a friend in Ajimu, but as we did not get ourselves organized until 5pm (ice cream with Mie, preparing for tomorrow's pot luck lunch, laundry, tidying, searching for the directions etc) we gave up and went back to the castle for an impromptu hanami. I had a picnic packed, as I was planning on stopping somewhere on the way to Ajimu, at any likely pretty spot we saw, but it was just getting too late for car touring, AND a picnic AND visiting the friend AND getting home in time to finish the pie and watch my TV show. So we were back home and in the bath by 7:30, and I now will have time to watch the second half of Pride and Prejudice, the one where Mr Darcy goes swimming in the lake...
Photos from the Hanami:
The girls heading down the road towards the castle and park
The castle behind the cherry trees, and on the right, the ubiquitous blue ground sheet. Once I would have cropped that out of the photo; now it just seems like an integral part of the scene!
Our picnic, very simple, the only thing I bought was the fried chicken, soy and ginger flavored fried chicken from our favorite store, which happens to be on the next block, and was recently voted one of the best in the country. Centre, flowers, a petal on my plate, and another ubiquitous hanami scene - shoes lined up by the mat. Japanese do not step on the picnic mat in their shoes. At the bottom, the kids play in the dirt. I rounded them up and brought them home not long after the rolling-in-the-dirt activity!
Pink and white and black and blue, on the left, the setting sun shining directly on the flowers brought out the pink; on the right, framed by the pale blue sky
Lena
Sun setting behind the Sakuras
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Just to add for posterity that the kids really are lovely after all... Amy put Erica to sleep! I was finishing this blog and sent them up ahead of me... when I got up there, she was asleep, all tucked in with her array of toys, so sweet! And Amy and Lena tucked into Amy's bed.
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