Hanami

The cherry blossoms (sakura) have bloomed in Tokyo! Our apartment building is called Roppongi Sakurazaka Residence, and Sakurazaka I recently realized translates to Cherry Blossom Hill - as you can see from the pictures below, our street is looking pretty amazing right now. I know that in D.C. it's an event every year when the cherry blossom bloom, and while I've never experienced it there I can't imagine it compares to what happens in Tokyo. It's a BIG DEAL. I guess there is one tree in particular that officially signals the beginning of Hanami (literally "flower viewing") when it blooms. A friend of ours that has been in Tokyo for 4 years now mentioned that she can't get over how excited the Japanese people get for Hanami every single year, despite it happening, well, every single year. I'm sure you could say that about Americans and some events that we get excited for - opening day, 4th of July fireworks, etc, but here the excitement and appreciation just seems to be on another level.  Restaurants offer special sakura set menus and sakura flavored items pop up everywhere - Sakura Frappes at Starbucks and Sakura Fizz Floats at McDonalds, to name a few. Sakura themed merchandise is dominating the fronts of the 100 yen shops and grocery stores right now. Office workers all get together for organized breaks during the workday to go view the sakura and on the weekends everyone heads to a park to have a Hanami picnic under the trees. They spread their tarp out on the grass and sit eating and drinking all day long. 

Annie's class went on a sakura walk during school, and we took many walks down our street (Sakurazaka!) collecting cherry blossoms that had fallen to the ground. In related news, I've been vacuuming up dead flowers in our apartment all week. On Saturday we joined friends in Yoyogi Park for a picnic along with what seemed like half the population of Tokyo. It was fun to see all the blankets and tarps spread out on the green, and checking out the fancy bentos people brought. Not to mention the alcohol! My favorite was a tarp with 3 guys and 5 giant bottles of booze, nothing else.

Joe took a day off work last week since he was flying out that night on a business trip, so we took the train to Nakameguro just a few miles from our place as it's a popular place to view the sakura over the Meguro river. It was a beautiful day and the river walk was packed! Everyone was literally oohing and ahhing as they emerged from the train station and the trees over the river came into view. And, of course, everyone was constantly snapping photos - some with phones and some with super fancy professional cameras. I always wonder what people do with all those photos of cherry blossoms, year after year. Maybe post them to their family blog :).

We feel so lucky to live in such a great neighborhood with beautiful trees right out our backdoor - every day the girls are excited to look at the "beautiful flowers" (while they last) as we ride our bike or go for a walk. It's a great way to welcome in Spring! 

*side note: as I was finishing up this post I felt a tiny earthquake. Small ones happen very frequently and I most often notice them at night while lying in bed.  While I feel pretty much used to it by now, every time I feel the shaking start I always wonder, "OMG! Is this the Big One?!?! Should I run to the girls' rooms!?" But by the time I finish that thought, the whole event is over. #livingonafaultline

On the pedestrian bridge connecting our street to Roppongi Hills

Best we can do for a normal picture

Annie and a school friend at Robot Park

This street (Sakurazaka) runs along the back of our building

They found some piles of petals to throw into the air

It's raining cherry blossoms!

Annie insisted on posing like this

Robot Park, next door to our apartment building

Sakurazaka Residence/American School Early Learning Center

Sakura in Roppongi Hills

Nakameguro

Meguro River

It was sooo crowded!

There was a huge crowd gathered around this dog, everyone was taking his picture... obviously I joined in

For comparison, this was about a week before the rest of the pictures, just when the blossoms started to open

Part playground, part shrine

Investigating the shrine, pretty sure you aren't supposed to touch that

Cherry Blossom Hill

Love these gals!

Lizzy became the subject of a few photographs

Nakameguro

Lizzy and me at Yoyogi

Celebrating Hanami at Yoyogi