Hanami de su!

Tonight I attended my first cherry blosson viewing party! It was cold and there weren't many cherry blossoms actually in bloom, but it was still a lot of fun.

'Twas a loverly day...

Today's weather was much better than yesterday's, so I packed myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some green tea, a good book, and my camera, and headed out to Rengeji Park. I visited it for the first time in January and it was great then; but now that the weather is warmer and plants are in bloom, it's really beautiful.

I found a nice spot and camped out for a while, just enjoying the sun and my book. Here's a video from where I spent most of the day:

After a few hours I decided to take a walk around. Rengeji is a huge park with lots of little things to see, so it wasn't difficult to keep myself occupied for a while:

ahhhh, it's been so long since my extremely pale legs have seen the sun...

i even found some cherry blossoms! my first time to see Japan's most popular flower.

On the way home I made a quick stop at a cemetery to get a few shots. Japanese cemeteries are so different than American ones - I can't resist stopping when I pass by one:

Oh, and I also found another secondhand store, which makes FIVE in Fujieda (that I've discovered...there could be more). Best town ever!

Strawberries and sweets - a perfect combination.

It was a rainy, dreary day today, but that didn't stop me and some others from going strawberry picking and to a sweets festival in Shizuoka!
First, we drove to Kunou for strawberry picking. I thought we would get to take in buckets and pick as many as we could, but we could only eat the strawberries, not take them out! So, basically, we just gorged ourselves on strawberries until we couldn't eat any more!

we got some condensed milk to dip the strawberries in.

too many strawberries...my poor tummy.

we got mochi afterwards - this is mine with daikon (japanese radish) and soy sauce.

claire had sweet red beans and powder with hers.

there was green tea, too!

then on to the sweets festival.

this is frosting!

sakura (cherry blossom) ice cream

whiskey and brandy ice cream.

i think baked potato ice cream.

and chicken ice cream. there was also eel ice cream.

random japanese person wearing an FFA jacket.

all of these are made of cake and frosting:

this is a sugary model of the new airport being built near Mt. Fuji

making flowers out of spun sugar.

and very expensive American candy.