And I just finished totally biting the girls' heads off about the mess! It doesn't take them long, especially since the living rooms are filled at the moment with over-flow from the in-process spare room tidying.
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
To be honest I still think it's a bit of a fuss for just kindy starting...
Speeches, introductions, performances from current students, presentation of a name tag, some singing and a brief orientation for the parents. It all took about 30 minutes.
Not so easy these days to get a good photo of self-conscious/shy/naughty three-year old!
Three Girls
Clockwise from top left: Erica being presented with her name tag; being led back to her seat by a kindy teacher; in a circle singing the ABC song; watching the video in the hall before we started.
Last Day! School tomorrow! Though I am mentally extending the break til Monday, as the girls come home from school before lunch tomorrow.
Work has begun in earnest on the spare room! I have gutted and moved four bookshelves; the books themselves are lying in piles on the floor waiting to be sorted and moved to their new homes.
The china cabinet that was in the genkan has been moved to the spare room. The glass-doored bookshelf has taken its place in the genkan, and will be graced with my prettiest and most precious books, plus all the ones about New Zealand.
One more bookshelf has come into the living room, it will have the lower shelves filled with books for Erica, higher shelves for Amy and Lena, and the top shelves for me and Kanji; for me to put my current and next reading, for Kanji to pile up his little piles of 'stuff' that he does all over the place.
Two more shelves are in the hallway on the way to the bathroom, they'll be filled with various fiction and non-fiction. And I left one shelf in the spare room to take the English teaching materials, Japanese learning materials, etc.
Nowhere NEAR finished! We have lots more work to do!
I worked in the morning, so the kids went to Baachan's. She was happy to see them and they were happy to have Aunty Mie come and take them out for lunch!
After work I had a singularly bizarre meeting consisting of singing kindy songs.
I came home for a very quiet lunch, got called half way through to pick up a 'so sleepy she's nearly asleep in the car' Erica, who, when I saw her and suggested we go home for a nap, ran very quickly in the opposite direction saying 'NO sleep I wake!'.
Finally rounded up all children plus hand-me-down glasses and teapots from Baachan, and took them home; Erica upstairs to sleep, Amy and Lena off again to Baachan's on their bikes.
I spent the rest of the day starting the next task on the to-do list - the spare room - in between checking an essay, skyping Mum, supervising the delivery of the new dishwasher, and transforming said dishwasher's box into a house for Erica with a Barbie raincoat roof.
Finished the day with a nice glass of red in the cool April sunset, kids home and bath filling...
Work work work. Certainly wasn't a break today, and still isn't as I have some paperwork and an essay to check before I can throw in the towel. Only 2 lessons today, but needed to do some prep for another one, as the curriculum has changed...
So it didn't feel very holiday-ish today, but at least I anticipated that by not adding something from the perennial 'to-do' list to the usual chores for today! So as soon as I've done typing this, my tired eyes and I can hit the pillow. Goodnight!
So far the only holiday goal I haven't met is lying on the sofa reading. I guess that means I'm doing pretty well... I'm sorting out photos and uploading them, I'm sleeping in, and I'm working through that to-do list. Today's was to tidy the medicines, which I got done rather late, starting at 4pm!
We all slept in again today. I would have read in bed but Erica woke up and wanted to get up. I took my sweet time having a cup of tea and checking the computer stuff. Amy and Lena got up and took their sweet time too. Finally we were galvanized into action by the daycare calling and asking Where was Erica. Huh? Nobody told ME that the dates were finalized for April and she'd be starting April 4. Apparently they called K, but he can't remember. Hmm. If this doesn't make them realize that calling the MUM is the best idea even if she speaks Japanese as a second language and you feel you can communicate better with the Dad...
We got her there about 10:30, and decided to have her stay for the nap, so I went back and rustled up her futons and brought them back (it's about 2 minutes drive away). Then me, Amy and Lena, um, took it easy again... they only got dressed because I told them I'd take them out for lunch. We went to Joyfull. New Spring/Summer menu, same old same old, only the gobo salad has gone, boo hoo, but the mixed pizza has been jazzed up a bit. We didn't have drink bar tickets!!! Kristin can you believe that?!? The ones in my purse were expired. We did without, since Joyfull is also about 2 minutes from home, and we figured we could wait that long for a drink of water. In the end we stopped by Daddy's shop (right next to Joyfull) and got some water there before we went home.
Cue more taking it easy (interspersed with four laundry loads, cleaning the kitchen and tidying the living room, I should add, but these things have to be done every day so I don't really even think of them when I consider what I have done today).
Amy was still feeling a little ill, so we skipped swimming. We rode the bikes to Joyfull and I rode to pick up Erica, so I got a bit of exercise done. Which brings me up to now, 7pm, dinner nearly done, then bath and bed for an early night!
Company Picnic. I don't know how I've managed to miss it for several years running now... not sure why I missed it last year, but 2009 I was in NZ, 2008 perhaps it was because Erica was little, and I wasn't working at the time, 2007 probably because I had pg nausea and found the idea of going and smelling meat cooking and watching everyone drink beer to be quite depressing!
Coming up the road by the park
Kids and parks, always a perfect mix. Top: Lena's tree-climbing antics, and two priceless expressions caught on camera in one day! In the second, it's taken literally a second after she said 'She's killing me!'. Middle: Amy's games - getting lifted by Nakano-sensei, who succeeding in lifting her after trying to move Rob off the ground. Running around with baby Sara, and getting a swing off Rob. Bottom: Erica playing hide and seek with her Daddy, clutching her precious Candy Apple, which I refused to buy for her, but which Daddy bought for her after approximately one nanosecond of begging. Such a softie! Bottom right, with her soon-to-be kindy teacher Tomomi.
Flowers and family
Top left the kids' photo. Top right with goofing-off teachers included: Kiwis Andrew and Mari, Rob bugging Hannah and Emma (sisters) again, with Kevin's brother Ken, on the right, Sara's Dad Kevin talking to Erica's other soon-to-be kindy teacher Kristian.
Dudes from the next picnic along who we roped into taking our group photo. Loved the guy with the red hair, leathers, and fag hanging out his mouth as he took the pic! Even the toughest J. guys go to admire pretty flowers and politely take strangers' photos!
Kids and trees, another winning combination. Erica getting a bit of help!
As the afternoon wore on
Kids play. Somehow they figure out what the other is saying...
Last night's barbecue was great - only a fraction of the five thousand invited guests actually turned up so all was well and the onigiris sufficed.
Top left: I managed to get all the kids in one shot, quite by accident! Lena, Erica, Momoka, Ui, Fusa, Karin and Amy. Top right, Karin and Amy with the food. My sausage in bread idea didn't go down too well. I was the only one who ate it! Bottom left, Momoka and Lena set themselves up nicely with yard junk. Bottom right, Erica seemed to be the only one who chose to sensibly dress for the ACTUAL weather, not the weather we just hoped for.
Karin and Momoka arrived first, sans parents, and immediately set to playing very hard with Amy and Lena. Next Egami sans wife and daughter (hard out playing Volleyball) and the Nagakura family (Mum, Dad, 2 boys) arrived, and we fired up the barbies and got cooking and eating. N brought me some champers which me, K and E drank while he watched and asked for opinions about its flavor. Neither he, nor his wife, drink - but they own a bar. So he wanted to know if it was any good! It was fine of course, champers on a sunny afternoon always is!
Next Ozaki turned up. Single guy, DJ and all-round music freak, he brought his iPad with music channels and hooked it up to speakers he brought and set in the garden. Times like this I feel very lucky to have neighbors who are mostly either deaf or dead. A shop on one side, a river and cemetery out the back, a deaf old lady out the front, so I only worry about the young family next door. N was also complimenting how great our place is for a bbq. I have mixed feelings about my yard/garden, probably because I have NZ friends with better garden nous who have actual lawns, but in comparison to most of K's friends, it's a perfect bbq space, with double doors that open from from the kitchen and living rooms to the garden, fully walled so the children can't escape, and the river out the back means we have a feeling of space as there are no buildings on that side. When I thought about all the others guests' houses I realized it was true, we DO have the perfect garden for bbqs, and I should be grateful and not moan too much about its failings.
Left to right: Egami and Kanji; Ozaki and speaker; Nagakuras Kotaku and Megumi
After the first flush of cooking and eating we all sat down around the barbecues to keep warm and drank more wine, this time French chardonnay from a plastic bottle! Me and K handed out jackets for everyone to wear since it really is too early in the season for bbqs! We switched from the sunny reggae channel to Irish music on YouTube as the sun went down and I translated such Pogues gems as 'I am gooooing... I am goooing... where streams of whisky are floooowing" which everyone agreed was a pretty good idea.
Multitasking Barbecue Master
The Harada parents finally arrived with little boy Yuki for Erica to play with. Hirakawa arrived sans family (wife and FOUR kids would have been a handful to feed!) More beer was drunk. E called for more wine, still not sure who brought it, red this time. More meat was barbecued and more people marveled over the risoni (nobody had ever seen it before). More jackets were handed out and I changed from my blue jewelled wedge sandals to my 12cm platform studded mules since Maki had a pair almost exactly the same. I then proceeded to fall all over the place so promptly gave up and switched back to the wedges. I do love those shoes though - but perhaps not for bbqs.
Finally the cold chased us inside, and we set up around the round table, heater on, almost felt like pulling out a nabe! In the meantime Osamu, Harada's brother arrived. Osamu is the drummer for the Sex Pistols cover band K plays in, and for another band with the guy who is bringing my new dishwasher on Tuesday, and the guy who is a DJ at the radio station where Nagakura and Kanji have their radio show. Hirakawa and Egami are the singer and guitarist in K's Rolling Stones cover band. Osamu's brother, Maki's husband, also plays guitar in another band with their sister and the electrician again, who didn't come but popped in for a few minutes the night before.
I will admit to not remembering much after this. Hirakawa is a baker and brought some very delicious cakes which we all ate. K brought out the whisky. He tells me they were all gone by midnight, and by the state of the kitchen and living room and garden the next day, it looks like everyone had a go at cleaning up, if not quite finished....
Did you ever have a day where you just wanted to add a few hours? Well, that's exactly what we did yesterday. I woke at 7:23, read a book, Erica was up next, making me get up about 8:40, and I had tea and checked email and facebook and did some photo blogs. Then Lena came down at 10:17. However, the clock on the wall in the living room said five to nine.
"Wouldn't it be great if it really was five to nine," I said. Meanwhile Amy had made her way down. And it was then that I decided that it WAS five to nine, that regardless of what the real world and everyone in it said, today we would go by that clock. It was great, because suddenly I had ages more time to finish doing the laundry, have breakfast and get ready for our picnic, and finish the photo/blog tasks I'd set myself.
So off we went to our picnic at "11:30". And we got back home at a respectable "2:00". Kanji came home not long after, and we started our barbecue in the sunshine at "3:00ish". After food and drinks, we had a long hot bath, and managed to get to bed by "8:30". Wow!
While sitting in the sun sipping beer we called a few friends, but no-one could come. So we decided to do it all again the next day! Kanji promptly called everyone he knows and now we have about a million people coming over TODAY, very soon, and all I have to do is shopcleantidyrollonigirisforthefivethousand. As you do.
One more thing came up as we sat there - he told me he's ordered a new dishwasher! It finally broke down the other day, and when he told me the new part would be $150, if it was even available for such an old model, I just assumed that it would go WAY down the bottom of the list of things to buy for the house. But it just got shoved up the top, and he's going to pay it off.
Two seconds later I found out why. He's ordered a new digital HD recorder as well...
The Barbecue King. I just KNEW, when I heard him open the sliding door from outside, that a bbq was in the works.
Top: The kids are keen to take over the barbecuing. Yay! So me and K get to relax with a nice cold one. Kids in the yard. Centre: Erica being a robot. Bottom: kids! Erica admiring the sky, Lena's dual utensil technique, and Amy the Caravaggio.
I cleared the floor a bit... but the spare room cleaning scheduled for today will just have to wait.
Instead I fiddled with photos and uploaded some to facebook, some to blog entries about Lena's birthday.
And we went for a picnic lunch again, whole post about that coming up!
Kanji came home while we were out, and suggested we have our first bbq of the season! I always love the first one the most, so bye bye blogland, I'm off to have a very yummy, welcome beer in my own wee garden! Another post coming up about that too.
We biked over. Erica has her picnic essentials - a cracker and her chopsticks. Amy with my handbag, Lena has the sandpit equipment, and I have the picnic basket.
I love this photo! I just made them genuinely laugh, so no fake smiles!
Picnic time! A packet of crackers, a small box of guacamole, cream cheese and mini tomatoes. Plus a bottle of coke and some oreos. Below, my offerings to the cherry gods. Oreo moon.
This plan/blog system is becoming a very interesting insight into how unpredictable life with kids is! And it was supposed to be all boring, same-same every day. Well, wasn't THAT a big lie - with their constant development and changing needs, the logistics of their care, and just dealing with five personalities in one house, no two days are the same, and you never know what's coming next.
PLAN: initial plan was clean bathroom + fix stuff (Yep, I'm the fixer-upper in my house, K wouldn't know one end of a screwdriver from the other). Check 2 essays for work.
PLAN B: I added in a morning visit to the dermatologist to see about the sore on Lena's nose.
DAY: spent doing laundry and sleeping. I did make it to the docs, to find Lena had tobihi/school sores/impetigo, but she slept in with a light fever so we were late going.
I just went out now and shoved some nails into a dresser drawer just so I could say I FIXED UP SOMETHING today. Bathroom is ready to go, I shall scrub it before I bathe, and do the drawers tomorrow.
WHY?: Amy woke up at 2am and vomited. From the top bunk onto the floor... she managed to hit: her own duvet, Lena's duvet and two of her blankets, my duvet, the ladder, the shelf under the ladder (do you know how annoying it is to clean a ladder, front sides, back sides, side sides and undersides?), about six stuffed toys that were on the shelf, and two more than were in the shelf, the tape deck, and one book - the ONLY rare book I own, that I specially searched the internet to find - Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, about 2 Japanese dolls.
So after a massive clean-up in the middle of the night, I left a pile of vomited-on toys in the bath, a pile of blankets and duvets in the genkan, and me and Amy slept on the sofa in case of a re-hash. Hence the need for a big long nap this afternoon, which wasn't divine, as it was filled (again) with images of destruction and loss. I can't complain, at least I actually DO sleep, unlike around 50 million or so other stressed out and traumatized Japanese.
Here are few random photos from my day:
woops... this the second time THIS WEEK my teapot broke. First time, the spout, second time, the handle. Cue: "I'm a little teapot..." In the background is the dishwasher, also out of order. For the record, the mixer broke this week too.
Amy feeling a bit better after a low day with a sore tummy, staring her party invitations. Lena, with a fever-induced headache, but she was a trooper and tidied up the study for me. Amy did the living room. Erica folded a blanket. Then tipped her Stitch cards all over the floor. sigh.
Clean toys: Tiger from African Safari kindy field trip when Amy was 3 and Lena was 1. Pig from god knows where. Mutley Spot-Rod, a gift from a boyfriend when I was 18! And a snake, a present for Erica's first Christmas from Santa
Plans to clean bedrooms with children, followed by bike-ride (via bakery) to park for play and picnic.
Instead, the doorbell rings at 7:50am. The first time it just floated into a dream. The second time, I firmly decided that there was no way I wanted to talk to ANYONE enough right now to forgo sleep. The third time I had to give in to it, muttering that they had better bloody still be there when I got to the door.
It was the kid from down the road, I thought they had come to play at first, but she said they had school! That's what you get for blithely not reading the school notices and assuming - stupidly - that spring break actually means the kids will have time off school.
Cue rushed breakfast and change of clothes and the kids got to school in time (I sent neighbor kid off to school with the rest of the Walking Bus while we frantically got ready). K called right AFTER all the drama to remind me that the kids have to go to school today. At least I had a chance to find out why - because the teachers don't hear until the END OF MARCH if they are being transferred to another school, so this is their only chance to farewell their students if they have to leave. The kids will be back soon, so I have a chance to do yesterday's Toy Closet job and we should still be able to fit the picnic in!
*********************
Later. Exhausted! But lots of check marks on the list!
I got that closet done! The kids got home, we all got changed and stopped by the bakery on the way to the park. We chose Donguri (Acorn) Park today; it has three small hills and a fort with a slide that leads right into the sandpit. There's a path all around the edges where the kids could practice their bike-riding skills. And it's near Fadie's, so we could pick up dinner (chicken with ume and shiso).
Bedrooms cleaned CHECK mushrooms fried CHECK dinner, laundry... and right now in the middle of some online photo site comparisons, but I'm getting very sleepy!
Another example of a day that turned out quite different from what I had planned, in a rather lovely way!
First of all, yesterday my kids and their two friends came here to play and I took Erica up for a nap. I did NOT nap myself, but did budgets and planning for the break. Erica woke up, the guests went home, Kanji arrived home and we all got dressed and ready to go to Max's birthday party - I will add another post with photos and videos from that, suffice it to say it was fantastic, the most fun I've had at a kid's party for a long time! Of course, it's only foreign parents who have them so that limits the amount I attend! After cooking up a storm at my own parties, it was nice to sit back and not have to do a thing - plus Ana played some very energetic games with the kids, which was really fun to watch! And I suppose sitting at the bar drinking beers and controlling the sound system with my iphone helped.
The plan then, for today, was to take Erica to her 3&1/2 year health check. I dropped Amy and Lena off at the Haradas before I went. I'm a pro at this now, and it went very smoothly. I don't how much of it is that I just know it's going to take a while, or if they have got more efficient at it (they used to be in a different location each time, rotating around community centres, but now they are always in the one public health centre, so perhaps that's enabled them to streamline the system a bit). Also, there tend to be less mums at the 3.5 year check than at the small baby checks. We were finished in 90mins. Height, weight, eyes, ears, teeth okay. The only problem was her not being able to do up buttons, which I thought was not significant. I brought up my worries about her still transposing consonants (try saying that in Japanese!) eg 'kolawa' for 'koala', or 'daibozu' for 'daijobu(ok)' (which is actually quite funny as it sounds like she is saying 'Big Buzzcut') but they didn't seem too worried about that. Only one of them blamed her bilingualism for it, but even then she didn't see it as a problem.
I drove her home on the levee, which she found quite exciting, if a little scary. When we reach the bridges, we come down off the levee and pass under the road, and whenever we did that, she'd sigh with relief and go 'Thank you Mum!'. Then when we came back up again, I'd hear her sharp intake of breath and she'd say 'careful' or 'don't falling' or 'water, water'.
Once home, I got a phone call from illahee, who had cut short her visit to GW due to Ryu being sick. So she decided to pop in and see us on the way home. I then called Amy and Lena to pick them up, the plan being that the H. girls would come too. Amy told me Yuuki was going to come too, and Maki would bring everyone. She came in too, so my quiet afternoon cleaning out the toy closet suddenly became a mini-party with three mums, nine kids and the contents of last night's party's pinata!
I FORGOT to go to work.
Nobody noticed... I guess they are all busy with their relocations this week anyway.
I'm getting back to normal life, and trying not to feel too guilty about having parties and buying presents and enjoying the spring days. In fact I'm starting to feel guilty about NOT feeling guilty every single day, after all one BILLION people are starving every day, 10 million or so are in slavery, 250 thousand died in the Haiti quake... it goes on. We should be having a food and clothing drive every week for these people. So I am getting back to normal life, except for the nuclear thing, which is making me more angry than scared. And confused, and wanting to bury my head in the sand because I am just so powerless to do anything but wait and see.
The alarm clock went off this morning! Which was fine, because I then had the exquisite pleasure of switching it OFF and going back to sleep. Erica woke up, started singing, and I said "shh". The other girls woke up and they all went downstairs, yay! I finally woke up at 9 when Kanji came home and told me the kids were downstairs ("yeah, I know, isn't it great!!" I wanted to say) and that I had to collect the rubbish net. What a great start to spring break! The Rubbish Nazi always brings it back anyway. Before you think K is a meany for telling me to get the net, HE put it out at 7am while I slept, so hugs and kisses to K, who understands my inability to function in the morning.
My plan for today was to do absolutely nothing, maybe read a book. I just want/need a totally obligation-free day without having a bunch of 'next, next, next' things stuck in my head. But then Kanji called, and wanted me to drive over to the next town to deliver a gift to his niece, who just graduated university and was heading to Fukuoka today, so it had to be RIGHT NOW. So, quick cup of tea, all children dressed and hair painstakingly brushed (Erica is developing an aversion to the brush lately) and we rocked up to K's work to collect the money envelope... and he called his sister to find that they are already in Fukuoka. Ooookay... you could have called her first!
Not pissed off at all, I should add. If there's one thing I've learned in family life, with big families on both sides and little people constantly being added to our little house, it's to go with the flow. In some ways I've come to even look forward to strange ways a day turns out so different from what I had envisioned.
So we drove to Haradas, as the my two and their two girls had promised each other yesterday to have another play date today. I was going to take them home, but their mother offered to look after all the girls in the morning, feed them, then bring them back after lunch. The plan was to continue playing in the yard, where they have constructed a restaurant out of the junk and rubbish floating around in what passes for a garden out the back of our house. It's now 1pm, and they are not back yet, but I expect them soon, then I can take Erica to bed - she has a mild fever - and possibly sleep myself, I've become quite the napping granny in my old age, I love having a wee lie-down...
Off now to balance the budget, and write a to-do list for the holidays. The basic goal is to go for a bike-ride/picnic every day, as Lena got a bike for her birthday, and K finally got the punctures fixed on our rusty shopping bike, which has a toddler seat, so Erica can ride along too. And also have a set chore to do, like the spare room, or cleaning out the medicine cabinet. Wish me luck!
Party guests: Karin, Lena, Erica, Yuki, Maia, Manami, Yui, Amy, Momoka, Mai Yard play. No party games, the kids were having FAR too much fun making 'restaurants' out of the junk in what passes for a garden chez nous... Takuya being the slide man for the toddlers... girls using the broken swing frame as a monkey bar...
Party food, clockwise from 12 o'clock: mini- hamburgers (condiments to the left in the silver bowl set I hummed and hahhed over in Kamla's Gifts in Hawera then finally bought), potato chips, oreos, butterfly cakes (muffins with the top removed and cut into butterfly wings and stuck back on with cream and a strawberry), fruit kebabs on a pocky stick, mint slice (made-up recipe), shape sandwiches (jam and cheese), french fries, more butterfly cakes, more shape sandwiches (plain jam; and cheese and mayonnaise) and waffles with custard and banana with sprinkles. Cake in the centre!
Happy Birthday Lena!
Party: left to right, top to bottom: cake and candles; Lena with her two buddies (other guests were friends of Amy and Erica); blowing out the candles; her parents; the littlest guest, Seina; Maia's Mum, Takuya, Yuki, Mai and Manami; Maia, Lena, Momoka and Yui; later guests Raul, his sons Alex, Joshua, Maguno and Max (and Maia's Mum); earlier, Yui, Mai, Erica, Maia's Mum again! Presents: Karin, Yui and Mai and Manami, below from Momoka and Maia Her special request for dinner was to go to Tropicoco (owned by above Raul) so we could do on-stage karaoke.
Lasagne! Lena's choice for her family birthday dinner. That's coke in the glasses, not red wine. And ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert, that's Grandma's chocolate sauce recipe, Chris that HAS to go in the next Greenwood cookbook! So easy and SO delicious! With marbles (smarties/pebbles) and walnuts on top. Erica being Santa.
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
