Church, hanami, and karaoke all in one day...welcome to Easter in Japan.

I started Easter the usual way with a church service at the church I've been going to that's about a 20 minute bike ride from my apartment. I really enjoy my church here and it was especially great celebrating Easter with people from different cultures. The kids did an Easter skit that was ah-dorable and we had a potluck, too.
After church I headed to Rengeji Park where some friends were doing the hanami thing. The park was full of people enjoying the cherry blossoms and wisteria (Fujieda's town flower is wisteria and some beautiful wisteria plants had been put in the park) and it was a beautiful day for it. We ate a lot of food and just enjoyed hanging out.
After hanami-ing it up, we went to karaoke - an Easter first for me! We went to a pretty shady karaoke place with a ginormous maneki neko beckoning us to come in, sing, and of course, give them our money. But even though it wasn't the nicest karaoke place I've been, it was dang cheap, which means it is now my new favorite karaoke location.
We had a blast singing along to The Killers, Linkin Park, The Rolling Stones, and some various other Japanese songs that I struggled my way through (quietly, to myself, while someone else sang it).
It was definitely not a traditional Easter, but it was probably one of the best I've had in a while. And here are about 50 kajillion photos to illustrate it (I couldn't resist shooting the heck out of the cherry blossoms):

Hiromi made an avacado, mayo, pesto, and chicken salad, but since I don't like mayo, she brought the ingredients without so I could made my own little sandwich. Thanks, Hiromi - it was delish!

Karaoke!