First Hanami

I have been waiting for this moment for a while in Japan, it's almost sakura (cherry blossom) season!! I went on a hanami with my friend about a week too early. Hanami is the name for a traditional picnic under cherry blossom trees. It's super fun. Everyone here does them. As I said, we went a bit early. There were some trees that were in full bloom but not as many as we had hoped. We grabbed some food and headed over to Shinjuku National Gardens in hopes of having a great picnic.

It was a beautiful day so the park was still pretty crowded. We went to the traditional Japanese portion of the garden and grabbed a seat right under a blooming sakura tree.

Me under our tree

My lunch box: fried pork, rice, tamagoyaki (fried egg), and green tea

I absolutely loved. We just sat there and absorbed the natural beauty around us. I adore the attitude that he Japanese have about sakura season. Everyone stops their days to admire the trees and enjoy a relaxing picnic. I think so often we blow past all of the natural beauty that is around us. We are so bust we never pause to reflect on the stunning things around us. It has really been a wonderful change in attitude for this amazing spring season.

After lunch, we joined everyone in taking pictures of our tree. I think I caught some pretty great pictures.

The obligatory close up

The park in the background

We walked through the rest of the park trying to find some more awesome trees. Luckily, we found some perfectly blooming ones.

Yes! I have a picture of me and the tree!!

So basically, I had an awesome time and can't wait for peak season!

Family Visit Days 9 and 10: Goodbye!

After almost three weeks of them being gone, I am finally coming to the close of the stories from my family's stay. I wore them down pretty hard! On the 9th day, we had a pretty relaxing day. We got up late and rolled into Tokyo to visit a garden. We went to the Shinjuku Gyoen. It was beautiful and had many plants from all around the world! It was a nice find for someplace I could go strolling in the future. We mostly spent our whole day there wandering around.

The skyscraper district in the background

The traditional Japanese Gardens

More of the gardens

Fish!

Enjoying a picnic lunch

Yummy!

The French part of the garden

After the garden, we ran to see the Imperial Palace. My family was thoroughly disappointed in it though as you can't actually enter the palace grounds or get near the Palace. After that disappointment, we just headed back home.
The next day, we went back to Kamakura. We had missed a whole bunch of temples including my favorite temple in Kamakura, Hasedera. We saw the three most important Zen temples in Kamakura first. I'm not going to lie. I don't remember the names of these temples. This was actually the first time that I had been to the temples. They were beautiful with a very quiet and serene atmosphere.

The path up to one of the temples

Clearly have to come back here in the spring

A sacred bell

Another temple

Another bell

Such a stunning gate

After our hike around Kita-Kamakura, we headed over to one of my favorite temples in all of Japan, Hasedera. I had been bummed that we missed it on our first trip over to Kamakura and was very happy that they wanted to head back to it for our last day. It had a little bit of something for everyone! It had the history and feel of olden day Japan for my dad. A great garden for my mom. A wonderful view for my sister. A sacred cave for one of my brothers. And, well, I'm not too sure what Tom got out of it...Everyone thought it was a great way to end their stay in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Hello temple which I love

Sacred cave

What a view!

After our exciting day trip, we met up with a friend. My sister had a foreign exchange student as a roommate in college. She was from Japan and just so happened to live in the same prefecture as me! I called her and we met her at my station for some Japanese karaoke! Everyone had a blast singing their hearts out and catching up with Jenny's old roommate.

It was a fabulous end to a fabulous day. Later, I had to say goodbye to them and head off to work the next day. Goodbye family! You are missed! See you again in 6 months!